The Pontifical Gregorian University has educated 28 Saints and 16 Popes. The first Jesuit educational institution, it was founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola. Now, there are 189 Jesuit universities around the world. 
Meet the newly appointed Rector of the Gregorian Pontifical University, Father Mark Lewis. 
Full transcript of the interview: 

Andreas Thonhauser
 
Father, how do you find yourself in this almost new role as a rector of the Gregorianum? 

Fr. Mark Lewis   
 
Well, I find that the learning curve has been fairly steep in these last three months. I was the Academic Vice Rector here at the Gregorian for three years before I became Rector so I had a chance to learn the system a little bit. But a Pontifical University is very different from the universities in the United States where I've been assigned before.  

Andreas Thonhauser   
 
How is it different? 

Fr. Mark Lewis   

I think maybe the most important thing is there's a much closer relationship with the papacy. There's a much closer relationship with the religious order that sponsors, in this case, the Society of Jesus. So maybe a little bit more direction from above, but also very, very focused on theology. So, this is the first university [I have been at] where the theology faculty is the biggest faculty in the university. 

Andreas Thonhauser   
 
The Gregorianum has a great history. Maybe you can tell us a little bit more, also as a historian, about the role of this university, this particular university, for the church, but maybe for society as a whole, also in Europe. 

Fr. Mark Lewis   
 
So, we go back to 1553, and St. Ignatius of Loyola, as the first general of the Society of Jesus, wanting to create a place in Rome, where especially people from the newly Protestant Reformation countries could come and study Catholic theology and prepare themselves for ministry in the church, going back to those lands. So, from the very beginning, the Roman College, which became the Gregorian University, was intended to be a place for international students from all over the world. The known world at that time was more Europe, but now it's the entire world. 

Andreas Thonhauser   
 
How do you think education and formation especially also of those who will go on to become priests and those who are already priests, how will that change in this digital age we've entered into? 

Fr. Mark Lewis   

I think I'll start with what we want to do in a traditional sense with education, and that's to prepare people to think and dialogue, to be able to confront contemporary problems with their tradition, so that they're able to continue to carry forth the gospel. In the digital age, I think the challenge is, how do we maintain that personal contact, the relationships that really help to transmit the faith, and not fall into the habit of just passing everything on digitally? I think there was a temptation with the book as well. But ultimately, people's faiths come from the people that they know. 

Andreas Thonhauser   

And so, the interaction, the personal interaction, is still very important. 

Fr. Mark Lewis   

Yes, we're very happy, for example, this year to be back in presence after the years of COVID. And, to my mind, where a lot of learning really happens during the small breaks between classes, the breaks during the class time, where people can go out in the hallways and talk about what they've heard, their own experiences from their local church, and to begin to share the differences that they that they bring, as they look at the common theology. 

Andreas Thonhauser   

The Gregorianum has formed, has educated, thousands, tens of thousands of priests, cardinals, and representatives of the church over the centuries. What do you think is the most important, or one of the most important things that people should take away other than just knowledge from studying? 

Fr. Mark Lewis   

I think for me, the most important thing that Jesuit education in general, and the university here, tries to do is help people to learn how to think, and to learn how to think critically. So, that it's not simply memorizing facts or learning, by heart, theology, but beginning to delve into it, and discover how this theology helps to answer questions that come up daily, that are going to be different with each society and each age. 

Andreas Thonhauser   

To some people, studying theology is not associated with thinking critically. How do you teach students to think critically? 

Fr. Mark Lewis   

I think that's a misunderstanding of theology. I think there's a distinction between memorizing facts in a sort of catechetical setting and beginning to do theology where you ask the deeper questions and also examine, critically, the answers. Understanding God is a mystery, so, no theological knowledge is going to give us a complete understanding of who God is. So, we have to keep coming back to it; we have to keep asking questions, going deeper to understand better what we know about God. 

Andreas Thonhauser   

How attractive is the Gregorianum today still to students? How many are coming to study here? 

Fr. Mark Lewis   

Well, the current enrollment is around twenty-five-hundred. We go between twenty-five-hundred and three thousand, from around the world. So, it's not the biggest school in the world, but it's also, as an international school, maybe one of the better places to encounter that internationality. I think we attract people who want to have an experience of Rome, and the theology that is being done here. I think we attract people who are interested in examining that theology critically, and asking the bigger questions. 

Andreas Thonhauser   

Asking the bigger questions, also teaching students how to think critically. Do you think the formation, the education also has to evolve more, in the coming times, also, with the challenges we face as a society, as humankind as a whole? 

Fr. Mark Lewis   

So, I think yes. I think the question of pedagogy is very important for every university, every school. For the Gregorian, we have used a tradition that's much longer, of lecture and oral exams, and it serves well. But I think the challenge is to continue to grow in different ways of delivering material, of being able to involve students more actively in the classroom, of having evaluation more frequently. So, there are a lot of things that we continue to grow, and even the way we deliver the course materials. 

Andreas Thonhauser   

And in which direction, or what would you say are the important topics for future priests or for future pastors in their parishes, to study and to learn? 

Fr. Mark Lewis   

Well, again, going back to the Roman College, as a historian, a lot of times the answers are pretty close to the same. So, one of the things that Ignatius wanted was to prepare priests who would be honest, and would have integrity in their life, that would then become an example to confront the Reformation. And so, there was a real sense of creating people who were smart, who knew their theology, but also lived their Christian faith in a way that would be a good example. I don't know that that has changed so much. In fact, I think in our age, there's a need to have priests who are transparent, who are honest, who live their values and their lives with an integrity that attracts people to the church. 

Andreas Thonhauser   

So, a lot of the values that are being taught here, of course, remain the same over the ages. At the same time, you also engage in very modern current topics. Artificial Intelligence is one example. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? 

Fr. Mark Lewis   
 
So, we have one theologian who's working on that, and one philosopher. And it opens many questions as to what kind of implications that has for human intelligence, as we become more reliant on artificial intelligence. Another aspect, though, that I'd like to move in, besides artificial intelligence, is dialogue. We are more and more aware that we live in a global community, in a world where we have to interact with people of different religions, different faiths. And so, the challenge is how do we do dialogue with people who believe differently from us in a way that allows us to move away from violence, move away from misunderstanding, towards finding the things that we hold in common, especially the common values that help us to create a world society? 

Andreas Thonhauser   

And how do we do that?   

Fr. Mark Lewis   
 
Well, I think it begins with knowing our own values and our own identity better. Almost every experience we've had of inter religious dialogue here at the Gregorian University, has ended with people coming away with a better understanding of their own faith in a way that allows us to be appreciative of and aware of the important things that we've received from our own faith. And then to share that in a way that doesn't threaten but then allows others to find those same values in their own in their own religion. 

Andreas Thonhauser   

Allow me also a bit more personal question. You are a historian. In our day and age, what do you think are the lessons we should learn from history? 

Fr. Mark Lewis   
 
I think history always intends to give context. If we don't have history, we often wonder, well, why are we doing this? And the tendency is to say, well, we've always done it this way; therefore, we have to do it this way. I think in the end history liberates us by reminding us that there were other times and contexts that called for different answers, for different ways of living and behaving. And so, I think we're called as historians to give people an idea, that there are options, there are ways of living our faith that have to change from age to age.) (this we could use if we are too short) 

Andreas Thonhauser   

Thank you very much. Thank you for your time also. Is there something that you would like to bring in also, when we speak about the Gregorianum, and the emphases of the University, 

Fr. Mark Lewis   

One of the things that I've said is that we are blessed by having very good students being sent here by various superiors and lay people choosing to come here. And I think the challenge for a university that gets good students is to help them to grow, and be open to new ideas, new ways of looking at what they've already learned, and what they've already experienced. And I think being able to reflect well on their past experiences, and to form new ways of understanding their theology is our goal. 

Andreas Thonhauser   

Could you maybe describe the ideal student of this pontifical university, where you say, we're looking, actually, for people like that? 

Fr. Mark Lewis   

You know, I think, no, because one of the things that we're blessed with at the Gregorian University is a real diversity. There's a tendency to say, well, a good student has this kind of background. But when you're in an international context, you have to realize that people coming from Africa, or Asia, or South America, or North America have very different experiences from those from Western Europe or Eastern Europe. They've learned different things. They have slightly different philosophies. They've even experienced their Catholic theology in a different way before they arrive. And so, they each bring those experiences in a way that if they say, this is the only way of thinking, would limit them. But if they begin to encounter others and say, oh, maybe I can bring something back from this exchange, then there's actually a within-religious dialogue, which I think is very fruitful, and happens here at the Gregorian University. 

Andreas Thonhauser   
 
If you allow me, also in connection with a religious dialogue: especially from the very beginnings, the Society of Jesus with Ignatius and with Francis Xavier has always put a very strong emphasis on mission: going out into the world to bring Jesus to the people, to the different nations. Now, the nations are coming here. How is this evolving? 

Fr. Mark Lewis   

So again, as a historian, if you go to the church of the Jesu, the Jesuit church here in Rome, you'll see two statues on either side of the tomb of St. Ignatius. One is ‘faith overcoming paganism’, the missionary enterprise, where there's the idea of bringing the Christian faith to people who have not heard it, and the new dicastery for evangelization, the evangelization of peoples. And that is presenting the gospel. But on the other side, then, there's ‘faith overcoming heresy’, so, the idea of bringing Christianity into more unity. And that was also a challenge at the time of Ignatius, and is still a challenge. And it keeps going back to a kind of dialogue. In the 16th century the dialogue was often interrupted by wars, by violence. If we can come to a dialogue in our contemporary age, where we can dialogue and learn and better understand the faith that we share, then I think we're living the values of that that early University.  

Andreas Thonhauser   

Thank you very much.