Like the Universe, Our Mission Must Evolve: Reflections of a Jesuit Scientist

  • Article
  • 3 pages
  • Level: all audiences

In this article published in the journal Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, concludes:

Ignatian mission is a participation in the intrinsically missionary nature of the Church, the concrete presence of the Creator among his cocreators. God is continually encountering the world in new and creative ways because the world he created is responsive to his continual encounter. Ignatius sent his men into that world and sought to free them of any encumbrance to a free and total commitment to the world in whatever way their talents would best serve the Church. And their mission was to evolve just as the universe itself is in evolution. But for any individual Jesuit, Jesuit partner or Jesuit institution the evolution of mission must be in consort with the intrinsically missionary Church. The wisdom of God in emptying himself to create a world which shares in his creativity requires that, since God is the one God of all creation, this participation in his creativity must be universal. It cannot favor any particular social, cultural, religious movement. While to function any given mission must be limited, it cannot be exclusive.

Click here to read the full article at Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education.

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Like the Universe Our Mission Must Evolve- Reflections of a Jesu