The occasion of this Woodstock Report is a historic transition in Jesuit higher education in this country. Never before had a lay person been president of a Jesuit college or university until Dr. John J. DeGioia became the 48^th president of Georgetown on July 1, 2001, the oldest of these 28 Jesuit universities.

What are the Jesuits thinking about? How can there be a Jesuit university without Jesuit leadership? Won't this be the beginning of the end of the Jesuit educational tradition at Georgetown University? - and, one by one, over time, of the other 27?

These are actual questions that I, and many of us Jesuits, were asked by alumnae/i and friends of Georgetown as soon as the lay president was announced. My first response was to assure them that no one is more "Jesuit" than President DeGioia. You'll hear that loud and clear in his remarks below. Second, I've reminded people of the centuries-long and very strong Jesuit tradition at Georgetown University, which was recently renewed in a "Mission Statement" which Cardinal McCarrick cites in his remarks that follow.

Third, I tell people that in sharing leadership of its institutions with lay people the Society of Jesus is not reluctantly yielding to demographic necessity - shrinking manpower. On the contrary, it has been planning quite intentionally to do just that for a number of years, in keeping with its originating spirit, as Father Howard Gray explains.

And finally, I have reminded people that the Jesuit community of Georgetown University is wonderfully skilled in and deeply committed to perpetuating its educational tradition, under the leadership of its rector, Father Brian McDermott, who hosted the evening's discussion.

So there's no work to be done? Hardly. There are a rash of questions that need to be asked and answered - not just verbally, but operationally. And that was the point of the forum that Woodstock sponsored on November 15th. The central question is, "How do we 'institutionalize' the Jesuit educational tradition without encroaching on academic and religious freedom, or desirable change and creative development?" Key to forging this institutionalization of Jesuit charism will be, as Cardinal McCarrick emphasizes, dialogue which is respectful, continuing, and rigorous.

An unfinished agenda of the evening's exchange, I would suggest, is identification and choice of the objectives, strategies, structures, and communication patterns that will support collaboration of all partners in pursuit of their common Jesuit educational goals.

We hope this Woodstock Report will be helpful for any number of Catholic educational institutions, hospitals and health care facilities, and other works originated by religious orders, and now moving toward lay leadership. The full text of this forum will soon be published.

Finally, in this season of prayer for peace, it seems appropriate to reprint the letter from our annual appeal.