© Trustees of Boston College. Global Partnerships in Jesuit Higher Education

In order better to confront the complex problems facing modern society, and in order to strengthen the Catholic identity of the Institutions, regional, national and international cooperation is to be promoted in research, teaching, and other univer-sity activities among all Catholic Universities, including Ecclesiastical Universities and Faculties. ( John Paul II, 1990, n. 7) The Roman Catholic Church sponsors the largest worldwide family of educational institutions—135,000 elementary and secondary schools and 1,800 colleges and universities. Catholic identity provides a match-less opportunity for networking in an increasingly globalized world; it is sad Ex corde Ecclesiae’s exhortation to collaborate is often unheeded. Last April at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, the Society of Jesus initiated new steps to counter that sad trend. The conference brought together some 300 educational leaders from over 200 institutions around the globe for 3 days of presentations and discussions on such topics as regional challenges facing Jesuit higher education; Catholic identity and mission; theology, science, an