Jesuit reputation suffers over Heythrop

The Jesuits in Britain have lost credibility at home and abroad because of their failure to secure the future of Heythrop College and provide a meaningful and creative alternative to its closure, a leading member of the order said this week, writes Megan Cornwell.

Speaking to The Tablet ahead of a three-day conference celebrating the distinct nature of Jesuit education, Dr Michael Kirwan SJ, director of the Heythrop Institute for Religion and Society, said: “In terms of the damage to our credibility, it’s enormous. It’s not a tourist bus that you hop on and hop off. You’re either committed to higher education or you’re not, and I think there is a real fear that the Jesuits in Britain do not seem to be committed.”

Drawing on similarities with Brexit, Dr Kirwan said there was still a lack of clarity around the decisions that were made and there was still no plan of action for the future.

“People felt that Heythrop was being closed down so as to put another initiative in place … but there seems to be nothing on offer by way of what happens next. There’s a sense of that myopic, short-term thinking that Brexit had about it,” he said.

“Anything we do in the future will require partnership, it will require working closely with other people and people will say ‘well, actually, the Jesuits don’t have a great track record of working with people at the moment: they’ve allowed Heythrop to fail and haven’t managed to find the kind of creative solution that was needed’. I think we will find it very very hard for people in the future to take us seriously,” added Dr Kirwan.