Jesuit alumni in the 114th Congress

From The Atlantic's article on The New Brand of Jesuit Universities which addressed how Jesuit universities are responding to the challenges of the 21st century.

Jesuit schools regularly surpass their secular counterparts in the number of service hours contributed by students per capita. One of the central tenets of Ignatian Spirituality is service to and with others; a concern for the poor and marginalized and a belief in social justice underpin many of the extracurricular activities on campus. Jesuit schools send high numbers of graduates into the Peace Corps and other service programs throughout the U.S. and around the world.

Jesuit education is about forming men and women for and with others. In a foundational speech in 1973, Fr. Pedro Arrupe said

Today our prime educational objective must be to form men-and-women-for-others; men and women who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ - for the God-man who lived and died for all the world; men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; men and women completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for others is a farce. 

Jesuits schools place a strong emphasis on service that often boils down to encouraging students to volunteer. That can be great but the call is to do more. We don't just want students to perform acts of charity but "to set the world on fire," to engage in transforming the world.

And it is not just serving humanity but doing so in the service and promotion of faith. We lose some faculty and students when we move from volunteering to transforming and from serving one's fellow man to serving God. That's one of the challenges that Jesuit universities confront today.

It's easy to emphasize serving others but it's more difficult when we say that we want to help form men and women for and with others in the service and promotion of faith. We also lose some faculty here because they believe that we are here to educate; campus ministry and student affairs are here for formation.

And while we often convey a rather limited vision of what it means to serve others, it's clear that Jesuit universities are doing something right. Nine percent of the 114th U.S. Congress (11 in the Senate and 37 in the House of Representatives) are alumni from Jesuit institutions, including high school, university and graduate work.

Representative John Boehner (R-OH, Xavier University) is serving his third term as Speaker of the House of Representatives and Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD, Georgetown University) continues to serve as the House Minority Whip. In the Senate, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL, Georgetown University) serves as the Assistant Minority Leader.

Of the 48 alumni/ae, seven were newly elected in 2014. Of note, Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI, Georgetown University) succeeds her husband, Representative John D. Dingell (D-MI), a Georgetown University alumnus who was the longest-serving Member of Congress in history (1955 – 2015).

There are currently 14 Jesuit colleges and universities represented by alumni/ae in the U.S. Congress. Georgetown University has the most alumni/ae with a total of twenty-three, followed by Boston College with six and Fordham University with four. The College of the Holy Cross has three, while Creighton University and Saint Peter’s University both have two alumni/ae represented. The remaining schools with alumni/ae in Congress are Loyola University Chicago, Loyola University Maryland, Marquette University, Saint Joseph’s University, Santa Clara University, University of Detroit Mercy, Wheeling Jesuit University and Xavier University.

"We are proud that nine percent of Congress are alumni/ae of Jesuit colleges and universities,” said AJCU President Rev. Michael J. Sheeran, S.J. “We are grateful for their leadership, and we look forward to strengthening the excellent working relationships we have already established with those in Congress and forging ties with new members of the 114th Congress.”

Click here for the complete list. That is unfortunately down from the 113th Congress when there were 52.