A conference being held today at Heythrop College reflects on Jesuit education and its vision, just as the Society of Jesus is looking to close its own intellectual powerhouse. That loss comes at a time when the Catholic Church in Britain needs its intellectual input more than ever

when Heythrop College transferred from its Oxfordshire home to become a constituent part of the University of London in 1970, a distinguished diocesan priest and author wrote to The Tablet describing the move as “possibly the most important event in English Catholicism for 100 years”.

The significance was easy to recognise. While there had been halls of residence of Catholic clergy at Oxford and Cambridge since the end of the nineteenth century, this was the first time an institution of degree- granting status had proposed to teach theology and philosophy in the Catholic tradition within a wholly secular university.

It was an act of great daring and a display of confidence in the future, the same sort of daring that led the Jesuits to first become involved in education at all levels soon after their foundation in 1450 – which eventually led to a global network of schools and colleges. The daring and the confidence are being celebrated in a conference on Jesuit education being held today at Heythrop, just as that verve is being dissipated, and not just in the British Province of the Society of Jesus.