What, for the University, is Solidarity? Catholic Higher Education and the Unfinished Reception of Gaudium et Spes
Paper presented at the “Vatican II and Catholic Higher Education: Leading Forward” conference held at Sacred Heart University October 13-15, 2022.
Abstract
Introduction:
Forty years ago, Jesuit philosopher and theologian Ignacio Ellacuría accepted an honorary doctorate from Santa Clara University and delivered a commencement address with which some of us here today are likely familiar. In the concise and penetrating speech, Ellacuría proposed a vision of the university as both a center of intellectual inquiry and cultural production, and as a “social force”—a place concerned with the transformation of social reality.