The Way Forward

Thank you, Sean [Carroll, SJ] and Craig [Williams]. I’m humbled by your words and grateful for your support. Thanks to Myles [Kelley, SJ] for planning and organizing our beautiful Mass earlier. I also need to thank Bill [Muller, SJ] and Ann [Wolf] for planning this day and for whatever you slipped into my coffee to sedate me long enough to get me to agree to all of this. 

I’m also grateful to all of the guests who have joined us today.  

In my ruminations this past year, in anticipation of transitioning into this new role, I certainly spent a fair bit of time thinking and dreaming about the future and this was something I expected — it’s pretty much part and parcel of the job — looking ahead and thinking about where we are heading, where God is calling us. But what I didn't expect was how often I found myself looking backward, reflecting on my own history and the history of our school. This afternoon, I want to share some of these reflections with you — some of my own personal history, some of the history of our school community, and then I’ll offer a few reflections I have about how this past might inform our future.  
 

Over the last few weeks, I’ve found myself reflecting on the many people who have helped form me over the years, and in particular, I’ve been moved as I’ve thought about all the Jesuits I’ve been privileged to know and work with. I won’t name them all, but I would like to take a minute and name three.  

Three signs of our times...

Earlier this summer the current superior general, Fr. Arturo Sosa, published a document entitled "De Statu Societatis" which was the result of a long period of discernment of Jesuits and lay companions on “the state of the society.” In this document, he offers this articulation of the Jesuit mission today, “We have been sent to collaborate with others, as companions of Jesus, in a mission of reconciliation and justice through the four Universal Apostolic Preferences.” 

Over the last year, as I’ve prepared for this new role, reflected on our past, and pondered the future of this great institution, I’ve become more and more convinced that as impactful as Brophy has been since its founding, this Jesuit mission has never been more important. To underscore this, I’d like to touch on three signs of our times that I think will inform how our future will unfold.

1. A shifting reality for men: seeking models of manhood in unhealthy places

A few years ago, a freshman dad came up to me at a Dads’ Club meeting early in the first semester and said, “You all really get boys.” It took me a second before it registered. He was expressing gratitude, after just a few weeks, for the culture and environment here that is particularly conducive to young men. I think he’s right — we do get boys and I don’t think that at any point in our history has this been more important. Recently, much has been written about what has been called the crisis of men. To be clear, this isn’t to deny for one second the significant structural advantages that men have — but two things can be true at the same time. The reality for men IS shifting: Men are less likely to succeed in high school, less likely to graduate from high school, less likely to attend college, less likely to graduate from college, and then more likely to drop out of the job search — and men account for a disproportionate share of deaths of despair — suicide and drug overdose. 

In light of these realities and this instability, more and more boys are seeking models of manhood in unhealthy places — like Andrew Tate. I think we’re uniquely positioned to meet this moment and provide our students with healthy and holy visions of manhood.  

2. The globalization of superficiality

In 2010, then superior general Adolfo Nicolás, SJ — who I referenced earlier — gave a talk to leaders in higher education in which he warned against what he called the globalization of superficiality. This is the umbrella under which he lumped all of the negative implications of what, at that time, were emerging information and communication technologies — cell phones and social media. 

He described the ease with which we could access information, the ability to cut and paste without needing to think critically, write carefully or develop one’s own opinions. He expressed concern about the superficial nature of the “connectedness” that these technologies allowed — the ability to“friend” or “unfriend” people without ever meeting them. That was 2010. The first iPhone was released in 2007 and Facebook surpassed MySpace in 2008, the same year that most of our current freshmen were born. In 2010, Fr. Nicolás was worried about the implications of cutting and pasting, now we have ChatGPT. He warned about the dangers of misinformation; we’re now in an era of post-truth and alternative facts. He expressed concern about the superficial nature of relationships; now we have Snapchat. He warned against the pervasive nature of advertising and the mythology that it creates for young people about what they need and what will make them happy. Today, every advertisement our students watch, or listen to, is designed specifically for them, based on their particular habits and interests which have been mined since the first time they watched Barney on Netflix. And every post they like or every purchase they make only furthers this vicious cycle. Given this landscape, is it any wonder that adolescents are facing a mental health crisis?  

As AI will only become more sophisticated and new forms of social media will only become more self-referential and superficial, our Jesuit mission will only become more important. An antidote to the superficial is the transcendent and so this first UAP is the entire ball of wax: Showing the Way to God. Once we encounter the God who only wants to love us (to quote Fr. Muller), we can begin to develop Ignatian indifference — giving value only to things of the world that help us become loving persons. This is why Kairos is such a transformative experience for our students. Particularly because fewer and fewer of our students are affiliated with a faith community, showing our students the way to God must remain our primary goal. This was, after all, the reason Ignatius founded the Society of Jesus in the first place — to provide a pathway to God. And as far as AI and what that will mean for education? I’m not going to hypothesize about the pedagogy of the future and whether or not we should be teaching writing in five years, I’ll leave that to the new principal. But I do know that Ignatian discernment will be key. Thoughtfully and prayerfully engaging reality with depth and creativity, making decisions based not on immediate gratification but on which choice will lead us closer to becoming the person of God we were created to be…  These skills of discernment are ones that no machine will ever be able to replicate and so they are skills we need to lean into, in our own formation and in the work we do with students.  

3. Polarization in a post-institutional age

The third sign of our times that I think underscores the importance of our mission is the polarization that seems to permeate all aspects of our culture. I’m not a sociologist so I won’t pretend to be able to dissect or analyze this but I do want to offer an observation. Over the last 50 years, our society has experienced a steady decline in people’s trust and confidence in institutions. Institutions of all kinds — government, business, organized labor, public education, and, notably for our context, organized religion — are becoming less popular and less relevant every year.  

We’re living in a post-institutional age. Fewer and fewer people proudly associate themselves with any sort of collective, any sense that they are in community with others who are oriented toward a common purpose larger than the sum of the individual parts. I think this erosion of our institutions is one of the drivers for the tribalism and hyperpolarization that we experience. Absent healthy institutions that bring otherwise diverse people together, the tribe to which we belong — Democrat or Republican, liberal or progressive — becomes all-encompassing and absolute. This doesn’t leave room for authentic debate on ideas or any seeking of common understanding based on a presumption of goodwill about the other person. 

In a compelling article he published earlier this week in The Atlantic, columnist David Brooks offers this: “People join partisan tribes in search of belonging — but they end up in a lonely mob of isolated belligerents who merely obey the same orthodoxy.” 

This era of hyper-partisanship no doubt presents us with significant challenges. During my listening sessions last year, this was far and away the biggest concern voiced by alumni, parents and board members. But I also think we face a tremendous opportunity and are uniquely positioned to model a different way of being. I know of no other institution in Phoenix that attracts such a diverse array of backgrounds, perspectives, and “tribal memberships” all grounded in a common mission. What will it mean for us to remain firmly and prophetically planted in our Catholic, Jesuit identity while also remembering that we are a school, a laboratory of ideas where young people are given space and support to wrestle with and engage diverse perspectives? If we are serious about the work of reconciliation and justice, we need to become bridgebuilders, instruments of reconciliation, rather than yet another mob of isolated belligerents. 

And, as Fr. Sosa recently reminded Jesuits, if we are serious about the work of building bridges, we need to be prepared to get stepped on from both directions. 

Next year’s freshmen will be the class of 2028 which means they will graduate in our centennial year. As I look to this benchmark moment in the life of our school, it’s exciting to dream about who and what Brophy will be in the second hundred years of our existence. While I don’t yet know what the specifics of this vision will be, I do know that our future must remain deeply rooted in our Jesuit mission, lived out in response to the signs of our times — particularly the shifting reality for young men, the globalization of superficiality and the polarization that leads to division and isolation rather than reconciliation and true community.