A Message from President Pestello

November 10, 2016

Dear Members of the SLU Community,

Since I arrived here, we have endured many challenging situations. And in those moments, we have learned valuable lessons by engaging in difficult dialogue with each other. Leading universities around the nation began this semester with a call to treat each other with civility, respect, and mercy. I am most encouraged by our students, faculty, physicians, and staff who have led with empathy, compassion, and vulnerability; who have responded to vitriol with grace; who have taken our Jesuit mission to heart. We must continue on this arduous course.

Our Jesuit mission demands this of us. We cannot and should not walk alone. The world does not merely need students, faculty, physicians, or staff who study and work at Jesuit universities. The world needs individuals who are strengthened by a higher purpose and empowered by the Jesuit tradition. The Society of Jesus has long advanced the notion that religious universities could be places where holistic truth is pursued and engaged citizens are formed. We must continue to be of the world and never apart from it.

For years, our students have been told, “you are our future,” but they know they have to be more than that. They must be resilient, contemplative actors who, in the face of hatred, overflow with love. They must use their education to critique injustice, fight for the rights of the disadvantaged, and relentlessly strive to ensure dignity for all.

Billikens: You are our present, and that is a gift the world cannot do without.

May we continue to work with each other to grow in unity, love, faith, and hope.

Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D.
President