A New Jesuit School in Brussels: Going to the Periphery

Abstract

One of the key themes of Pope Francis’ Papacy is his call to go to the periphery. For Catholic schools, this includes opening new schools to serve those who are disadvantaged. Opening a new school is however not a trivial matter. And opening a new Jesuit school in a small country like Belgium that already has 16 other Jesuit schools is even less trivial. Still, this was the intention of the initiators of the Matteo Ricci College in Brussels, Belgium’s capital city, when they got together in 2012 to set up this project. As former students of the Collège Saint-Michel, a long-standing and large Jesuit high-school in Brussels, they were aware of the need for new schools in the Belgian capital due to sustained demographic growth in this cosmopolitan and multicultural city. This article tells the story of the creation of the college, and its emphasis in serving children from disadvantaged backgrounds with a number of pedagogical innovations.

Keywords:

• Matteo Ricci College
• Jesuit education
• Pope Francis
• periphery
• Belgium

Notes

1 See https://collegematteoricci.be (in French).

2 See the speech of Pope Benedict XVI (2008) at the 35th General Congregation.

3 They will open an eighth one in Brussels (Molenbeek) in 2023, the Egied Van Broeckhovenschool.

4 In 2017, the Southern Belgian Province of the Society of Jesus merged with the Province of France to create the Province of French-speaking Western Europe (or Europe occidentale francophone—EOF). At the same time, the Northern Belgian (Dutch-speaking) Province ended up forming the European Low Countries Region (ELC) with the Dutch Province.

5 The last Walloon college to open was the Collège Saint-Paul in Godinne in 1928.

6 The last Flemish college to open was the Ruusbroeck College in Brussels (Laeken) in 1968.

7 The word “public” should not be taken in the sense of the British public schools which are actually private schools. It should be taken literally, i.e. organized and fully financed by the public authorities.

8 Subsidized free schools are predominantly Catholic (90 percent), but also include a few Jewish schools, a handful of Muslim schools, and a dozen non-denominational free schools.

9 There is also a network of European schools in Brussels for the children of EU officials, but these are not strictly speaking private schools. Similarly, several of Belgium's neighboring countries run schools centered on the language of the country, such as the British School, the Deutsche Schule, or the Lycée français.

10 This school had seen its enrollment decline over the last 30 years due to the gradual displacement of the Jewish community from the outlying area of the Gare du Midi, known as the “Triangle,” the site of the textile trade, to more prosperous areas in the Brussels region or beyond.

11 In September 2020, years 2 and 4 opened and the number of pupils was 486 and the number of teachers 50. In September 2021, year 5 opened and the number of pupils was 599 and the number of teachers 75. For Year 6 in September 2022 the number of pupils should be around 700. The prospects for development are such that we are considering acquiring the neighboring plot of land to expand.

12 See https://coceje.be (in French).

13 See https://www.jecse.org.

14 See https://www.educatemagis.org. See ICAJE (2019).

15 On the four Cs, see Secretariat for Education of the Society of Jesus (2015).

16 The Pact for an Education of Excellence is a major educational reform. It is the result of intense collective work begun in 2015 and is based on an ambition shared by all school partners: to strengthen the quality of education for all pupils. It is a systemic reform that is part of the long term and is gradually being put in place.

17 Le Xaverius college à Borgerhout, faubourg populaire et anciennement ouvrier d’Anvers, et le collège Saint-François-Xavier à Verviers, ancienne ville industrielle, dont le center est aujourd’hui paupérisé.

18 See: https://enseignement.catholique.be (in French).

19 In the Dutch-speaking part of the country, the rate is even 70 percent.

20 See Imag (2021).

21 The Monastery of St. Moses the Abyssinian or Deir Mar Musa al-Habachi stands about 90 km north of Damascus in Syria, 13 km from Nabek, on a cliff top. First mentioned in 575 AD, it fell into oblivion in the 17th century and was only the object of an annual pilgrimage. The monastery was revived at the end of the 20th century and is home to a small, dual ecumenical religious community (monks and nuns) of the West Syriac rite, which promotes dialogue between religions and revives the tradition of the hospitable monks.

22 Paolo Dall'Oglio, born on November 17, 1954 in Rome, is an Italian Jesuit priest and missionary in Syria. In the 1980s he refounded the Syriac Catholic monastery of Mar Mûsa, also called the Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian, in the desert north of Damascus, Syria. He is very involved in Christian-Muslim dialogue. Following his open denunciation of the crimes committed by the regime of Bashar al-Assad in the context of the Syrian civil war, he was expelled from the country on June 12, 2012. In July 2013, he returned to Syria in the rebel-controlled north, before being kidnaped in Raqqa on July 27, 2013 by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. He has since been reported missing.

23 See in this regard the work of the International Jesuit Secondary Education Colloquium in Rio in 2021 and the modalities of its permanent update: https://jesedu-global2021.educatemagis.org.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alain Deneef

Alain Deneef is a Belgian entrepreneur, urban and education expert, and coalition builder. Born in 1960, he lives in Brussels with his wife and his two children. An Alumnus of the Jesuit Collège Saint-Michel in Brussels, he served for 9 years (2013–2022) as President of the World Union of Jesuit Alumni. He is the founder and current president of the Jesuit Collège Matteo Ricci in Brussels.