On February 16, the reaffiliation of Boston College with the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, took a step forward as the 10 American provincials, who together with the Jesuit Conference president constitute a governing board of the Society of Jesus in the United States, unanimously authorized Weston Jesuit to pursue a merger with the University. Last year, BC’s Board of Trustees similarly authorized the University to act.

If a merger is achieved, Weston Jesuit would become part of a new school of theology and ministry at BC, to be located on the Brighton Campus. Included in the proposed school would be BC’s Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry and the University’s Church in the 21st Century Center; BC’s theology department would remain a department of the College of Arts & Sciences.

Founded in 1922 as Weston College, Weston Jesuit is one of two U.S. Jesuit theology schools; last year it enrolled 209 graduate students, about 40 percent of whom were lay men and women. From 1959 to 1974, Weston Jesuit, though still separate, held the status of a college within BC’s university structure, and prior to 1959 an informal agreement between the schools allowed Weston graduates to receive bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University. Since 1974 the two institutions have had frequent and ongoing collaborations, including a jointly administered doctoral program in Christian ethics. Weston Jesuit offers master’s degree programs in theological studies, divinity, and theology, as well as a master of arts in spiritual direction, a licentiate in sacred theology, and a doctorate in sacred theology.

Paul Voosen

Intercollegiate, cont.

On March 16–17, Boston College’s Center for Christian-Jewish Learning and Brandeis University cosponsored a two-day conference to mark the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate (“In Our Time”), the landmark declaration issued in 1965 by the Second Vatican Council that overturned centuries of Catholic theological denigration of Judaism and opened the door for dialogue and collaboration with non-Christian faiths. Convened on both the Brandeis and BC campuses, the conference gathered panelists and guest speakers from Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Islamic, Buddhist, and interfaith organizations.

Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, delivered keynote addresses on each campus. At BC he cited sectarian clashes in the Sudan, Iraq, and Israel, and he underlined the importance of organized efforts among religious leaders and interreligious councils to engage in conversation and collaboration. “When war is raging there is usually little possibility of conducting dialogue,” he said. “Interreligious dialogue is more in the nature of preventive medicine than of curative medicine.”

Cara Feinberg

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