With the as of late reported takeoff of longtime Boston College president William P. Leahy, the 161-year-old institution sits at a intersection:
Ought to the college title another Jesuit cleric or brother as president, or instep see to title its to begin with layman as pioneer, as peer teach like Heavenly Cross, Georgetown, Fairfield and Fordham have all done?
“I do not think we’d have any issue within the world inviting a lay president,” said Boston College religious philosophy teacher Thomas Groome.
Leahy, who has served as president for about three decades and is the longest serving college president in BC’s history, declared in June that he will step down within the summer of 2026.
“For the another two a long time, I expected to keep working as continuously on progressing BC, particularly through our gathering pledges campaign,” Leahy said in a articulation.
In a message to the campus community, BC’s Board of Trustees Chair John Angle swore to recognize another Jesuit as its another pioneer.
“To fulfill our commitments as trustees, the Official Committee recognizes that we need to be do all able to to recognize, select, and title a qualified Jesuit as BC’s another president , one who will progress the University’s particular mission and heritage,” he said within the explanation.
Boston College’s philosophy division is known for preparing Jesuits, so a few sources told GBH News they accept the college is likely to title another Jesuit.
As it were four of the country’s 27 Jesuit colleges and colleges are still driven by Jesuits, counting Boston College, Creighton College, the College of Scranton and the College of San Francisco.
Georgetown College was the primary Jesuit school to switch to a lay president. Jack DeGioia started his residency in 2001 and is still driving the college in Washington nowadays. More colleges taken after suit amid the widespread, concurring to the Affiliation of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.
A source recognizable with the rummage around for presidents at Jesuit colleges, but who didn’t need to comment freely on another college’s look, ascribed the drift to “a declining number of Jesuits as they’ve matured and haven’t replenished.” Another reason cited is that lay administration can energize a school’s mission in an unexpected way since they tend to have companions and children.
Over the past 28 a long time, Leahy, who frequently dodges media interviews, hoisted the Jesuit institution scholastically and monetarily, extending programs and redesigning buildings and dorms.
A few LGBTQ+ backing bunches on campus have criticized Leahy for not driving the charge on same-sex marriage inside the church. Taking after the declaration final month, BC Balance shared an picture in Instagram in striking ruddy letters that said, “FINALLY!!!”
The Thea Bowman Intercultural Center on campus, which bolsters the undergrad community “with a specific center on understudies of color, LGBTQ+, and verifiably marginalized students” alluded all demands for comment to the college’s open relations office.
A BC representative did not react promptly.
Almost two decades ago, Leahy freely contradicted same-sex marriage. Promotion bunches on campus point out that he has never changed his position, indeed as open opinion has shifted significantly and the U.S. Incomparable Court nine a long time back this month ruled that same-sex couples, no matter where they live, have the same lawful right to wed as different-sex couples. Prior this year, Pope Francis guarded a choice favoring gifts for same-sex couples.
Groome said cheerful marriage is always a complicated issue for the church, and particularly for the administration of a Catholic college like BC.
“It can’t get as well distant ahead of the official church,” Groome said. “I know that Father Leahy by and by has profound regard for LGBTQ individuals. On the other hand, he wouldn’t lead the charge for cheerful marriage, but I’m beyond any doubt he
