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Intercultural collaboration in theological education
Three students from the Clough School of Theology and Ministry spent four weeks in Nairobi, Kenya as participants in a pilot course, one of the first programs from the Collaborative Theology Initiative (CTI). Formally announced by Superior General of the Society of Jesus Arturo Sosa, S.J., in 2025, CTI is an international network of theological centers working together to foster a theological education that forms and supports ministers and theologians for the global Church. The Clough School of Theology and Ministry is an inaugural CTI member, along with the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University; Hekima University College (Kenya); Loyola School of Theology (The Philippines); Pontifical Athenaeum Jnana Deepa (India); Regis St. Michael's Faculty of Theology (Canada); Saint Joseph Jesuit Scholasticate (Vietnam); and Vidyajyoti College of Theology (India).
“As theologians and scholars, we should be willing to welcome both the comfort and the discomfort that comes with engaging in a global context. There are challenges certainly,” said CSTM Special Assistant to the Dean for Strategic Initiatives Gandaf Wallé, S.J., one of Boston College’s representatives in the CTI, “but there's also beauty that lies beneath all of this.”
CSTM students Gregory Abbott, Grace Beene, and Raj Vijayakumar, S.J., joined 25 other students, representing each of the CTI institutions, in Kenya for an academic immersion course that ran from June 13-July 11. Titled History and Charisms of the First Jesuits: Discovering Our Friends and Our Friendship in the Lord, the course was offered through Hekima University College and provided students with not only a study of the primary texts of St. Ignatius and his Jesuit companions, but also pastoral ministry experiences and spiritual and intercultural connection.
Clough School students (l-r) Gregory Abbott, Grace Beene, and Raj Vijayakumar, S.J., in Nairobi, Kenya.
History and Charisms of the First Jesuits was taught by Christopher Staab, S.J., professor of the practice in Ignatian Spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (JST-SCU), with assistance from Emmanuel Foro, S.J., rector of Hekima University College Jesuit Community and professor of systematic theology, and Somy Mathew, S.J., secretary for integral formation at the Jesuit Conference of South Asia. The summer course was planned and coordinated by CTI Program Manager Milady Casco, who is based at JST-SCU.
According to Fr. Wallé, the summer course sought to make a connection for the students between the friendship among early Jesuits and the ongoing call to collaboration among CTI students and schools, and Jesuits and lay ministers, in today’s world.
For Abbott, one of the most significant parts of the course was the focus on how Ignatius’ friends were not all vowed Jesuits. “These men and women, rooted deeply in Christ’s love and mission, helped shape the Society of Jesus into an order that collaborates closely with the laity and recognizes their immense importance.
“It was incredible to see this historic cooperation embodied in our community this summer at Hekima: men and women, lay and religious, from diverse countries and schools, united by a profound desire to serve our Church and our world. Our laughter, prayer, conversations, and shared experiences—spiritual, pastoral, and social—revealed the Holy Spirit working through friendship, just as that same Spirit worked through Ignatius and his companions.”
Beene said the experience has given her “a deeper sense of belonging and collaboration with the Society’s mission.
“As a lay, female theologian called to ministry, I must reconcile my call to collaborate with the Society of Jesus with the fact that I am not a Jesuit,” said Beene. “Throughout my time in Nairobi, my classmates and I wrestled with [this reality] and looked to the early Jesuits, and their lay, female collaborators, for inspiration and encouragement. The more I interact with the early Society’s sources and learn about those individuals, particularly the lay women, who formed and collaborated with Ignatius, the more I’m trying to see and believe that there’s a legitimate, integral role that women have in the Society’s formation and mission.”
BC's Grace Beene (far right) in a discussion with two other students in the CTI course.
The course also provided pastoral opportunities for the students to engage with locals in schools, orphanages, and other places. “The students had the chance to translate the academic into something ministerial by extending that friendship they learned about to people who most need it, especially the poor,” said Fr. Wallé.
“As ministers and scholars in a global world,” he continued, “feeling in solidarity with a different context other than your own, is something that you can learn through these kinds of opportunities. Because it is one thing to talk about solidarity, but it is another thing to experience it on the ground.”
The summer course also focused on spiritual and intercultural connection. The students got to not only experience the Church in Kenya, but also hear how the Church is experienced in other countries by faith sharing with other participants.
The students attended Masses in different parishes in Kenya. “It was the same Catholic Church,” said Fr. Wallé, “but expressed in a different way. For example, worship in Africa is embedded with cultural elements, like dancing. The experience helped the students appreciate the diversity that is there in the Church.
“CTI alumi are or will be leaders of our communities, leaders of our schools, and leaders of various ministries,” said Fr. Wallé. “Our hope for them is that they always carry with them what Pope Francis has asked us to do: to remain intercultural, ecumenical, interrelational, and to not isolate yourself. So, this kind of experience is about enriching them. The students’ gifts and talents are not taken away, but their horizons are broadened through the encounters with people who are different from them and who may do things differently from them.”
According to Jesuit scholastic Vijayakumar, the immersion experience opened his eyes to the power of human encounter and deepened his desire to build relationships with people from all backgrounds. He cited a particular encounter he had with a local Jesuit. “In Africa, they understand by nature, that anyone who comes to you as a guest may be the presence of God in disguise. The guest therefore must be duly honored, respected, and taken care of,” he said.
“I was moved by his hospitality. I was brought to humility when I realized that this Jesuit was treating me as though I embodied the presence of the divinity. There was a respect, a thoughtfulness, and an openness to learning that this person was showing me all throughout our conversation. I was left with a deep sense of reverence and appreciation for how a simple conversation, a welcome, an attentiveness to the needs of others can unfold into one of these mysterious encounters with God.”
Though the summer course is over, the work of the CTI continues. CTI leaders, including CSTM Dean Michael C. McCarthy, S.J., recently gathered in Manila, Philippines for their annual meeting. The summer course is currently being evaluated, said Fr. Wallé, with the hope that this kind of initiative can be replicated. He said the CTI is also open to exploring intercultural or ecumenical programs that may already exist at members’ schools that could present opportunities for CTI students and faculty, and beyond.