Prominent Australian Jesuit Fr Frank Brennan says the impending closure of Heythrop College in London shows that this is no time for self-satisfaction or complacency for Jesuit higher education.
Fr Brennan, who is Professor of Law at Australian Catholic University and Adjunct Professor at the College of Law and the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the Australian National University, said despite a history of more than 400 years, the closure of Heythrop from 2018 showed that no institution was sacred.
"As members of the Jesuit Higher Education Network committed to social justice, we have great potential and vast material, intellectual and spiritual resources," Fr Brennan said at the Jesuit-operated Newman College, a residential college at the University of Melbourne, on 8 July. He was speaking on 'Expanding the Jesuit Higher Education Network: Collaborations for Social Justice', at the Jesuit Higher Education Conference.”
"But this is no time for self-satisfaction nor complacency. If you’re in any doubt about that, consider only this week’s London Tablet which carries the front page headline: 'Are the Jesuits pulling out of Britain?'
"The closure of Heythrop College brings to an end a history that began in Louvain in Belgium in 1614, when it was illegal to educate Catholic priests in England. The original college in Louvain was made possible by the gift of a wealthy English benefactor. Four centuries later, its successor institution has now run out of benefactors. No institution is sacred. No institution is spared the scrutiny of accountants and bean counters."
Fr Brennan's address was published on the Jesuit-run Eureka Street website.
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