The Task of a Christian University

Web Posted: August 25, 2003

"There are two aspects to a university. The first and most evident is that it has to do with culture, with knowledge, the use of the intellect. The second, not so evident, is that it must be concerned with the social reality, precisely because a university is inescapably a social force; it must transform and enlighten the society in which it lives.... We should always look at our own peculiar historical reality.... What does a university do, immersed in this reality? Transform it? Yes. Do everything possible so that liberty is victorious over oppression, justice over injustice, love over hate? Yes. Without this overall commitment, we would not be a university, and even less so would we be a Catholic university."

Ignacio Ellacuria, S.J.
Commencement Address
Santa Clara University, 1982