Building Bridges: Connecting Jesuit Schools Across Canada and Beyond

Ignatian education and formation are two of the pillars of the Jesuits’ mission, not just in Canada, but across the world. To strengthen those apostolates, Jesuit schools have begun to connect globally.

John Patrick Mancini is the Provincial Assistant for Secondary and Pre-Secondary Education for the Jesuits of Canada and the first layperson in this role. Having completed his education in Jesuit school and university, he discerned his vocation in Jesuit education through the Spiritual exercises. After five years teaching at Loyola High School, he became the Vice Principal of Mission and Formation and was asked recently by the Provincial to also be an Assistant. “I have been really well trained by the Jesuits, and I have been connected with them throughout my life. I believe if they have chosen me, it is because they felt that they have properly prepared me and formed me for this type of work.”

In this article, he discusses the challenges and opportunities within his sector, which represents schools all around Canada. His main goal: make opportunities for the apostolates to connect more with one another.

What is your role as an Assistant?

The education system is completely different from one province to the next in Canada. My role is to ask the schools what they need from the Jesuit Province to be more successful, to support them.

The Jesuits often speak about lay collaboration and a part it means trusting in the people that are there to do the work that we have missioned them to do.

What is your primary goal for the apostolates in this sector?

Our long-term goal as Jesuit schools is to have an impact on the world because of our faith. We are rooted in our faith; we are rooted in our mission and that means caring for the people around us. How do we do that?

The most important goal I have as an Assistant is to make sure that the apostolates have an opportunity to connect, because the distance between them is significant, making it difficult to spend time together.

That is my concern for our teachers and for our students: they may love their individual school, but they do not realize that they are a part of something more significant than just their own institution. And this is a goal, not just here in Canada, but for the education apostolates around the world.

Therefore, I want people working in our schools in Canada to know about each other, spend time together, and help them be aware of their global presence around the world.

The most important goal I have as an Assistant is to make sure that the apostolates have an opportunity to connect, because the distance between them is significant, making it difficult to spend time together.

How do you share best practices for Jesuit schools?

About once a year, we have the “Education of Youth”, an event where the schools, the Presidents, and the principals come together for a meeting.

We spend time talking about how well the school is doing, fundraising, or what our students are doing, and it is great. But what I really want us to do is talk about how our schools are creating opportunities for our faith as Jesuit institutions. We want to share their ideas and projects with the other schools.

We would love for the students to be academically successful, but that is not the mission of our schools. It is to create students who are going to go out into the world and better understand their Catholic teaching, Jesuit teaching, and how they can have an impact on their communities.

So, one of the things I would like to do is to bring more of the leaders of the schools together: presidents and principals, our campus ministers, our teachers, and our guidance counselors, to share best practices, challenges, and successes. These are people who have a direct link to our students on a day-to-day basis.

The things that matter most are how we are developing positive relationships and forming our students. And those happen one-on-one.

What are the challenges you face in this sector?

One of the challenges is that all the students in our schools do not have the same background or understanding of faith life. Many of our students do not come from families that are as deeply connected to their parishes or to their own personal faith, and that is OK.

But it also means we are not just working with students; we are working with families. If a student learns in school about Saint Ignatius and the Exercises, and they go home talking to their parents, they may have no idea what that kid is describing to them. Which means we have work so families can also understand our mission and our goals. For example, at Loyola High School, we have a parent formation to bridge that gap.

One of the challenges is that all the students in our schools do not have the same background or understanding of faith life.

Another challenge is that many of our students are getting in a Jesuit school a distinct set of values from what they are seeing out in the world, on the internet, social media, or TV. That is why it is so critical that all the adults in their lives understand what it is that we are trying to teach them so that those students are getting a clear message about our values.

I believe in the collaboration of all the adults working together within the schools, but also at home. These are all things that I would like us to work on in the coming years.

How do you fight against the influence of social media?

For example, we can meet with a child, one-on-one, to talk to them about why these are the things that they value. Are the people that they see on social media the best role models or mentors that they want to have in their life?

This is an ongoing fight for all schools, but I think Jesuit schools have a special responsibility in making sure that when parents send their kids to us, we are caring for them, not just academically, but providing them with the value-based education they need.

What are the advantages of being part of a global network of educators?

An example that I often give when I talk to our teachers about this is in India, where the government does not want schools to actively speak about faith in schools, so Jesuit schools have to find a way to continue to teach those students about Ignatian spirituality and what the mission of the Jesuits are, but they have to be very careful about how they do that.

That is not particularly different from working in a school in Quebec, where the education system is clear in its separation of Church and state. So we have these similar challenges and we can collaborate and find resources.