One of history’s great startup success stories, the nearly 500-year-old Catholic religious order built a global network and helped create higher education as we know it.

Founded in 1540 by the former soldier St. Ignatius Loyola—and starting with little more than a mission to help souls and do it heroically—the Jesuits quickly established themselves around the world and became known as the finest educators of their day. Today there are more than 180 Jesuit institutions of higher learning—including Fordham—on six continents.

How did the Jesuits succeed? For one thing, they believed in the ultimate importance of their mission, which “breeds a level of resilience and determination and creativity,” said Chris Lowney, FCRH ’81, GSAS ’81, a former Jesuit, former managing director at J.P. Morgan, and author of the 2003 book Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World. In interviews, Lowney and other Fordham alumni spoke to the parallels between the Jesuits’ mindset and the entrepreneur’s approach to startup success.

Lesson #1: They didn’t carry the mental baggage that can hinder entrepreneurs.

The Jesuits made a virtue of detachment—that is, detachment from things like status, possessions, and settled ways of doing things, which enabled risk-taking. Asked by Ignatius to depart for India, Francis Xavier readily responded “good enough, I’m ready”—and took it on himself to establish Jesuit outposts not only in India but across Asia, Lowney writes in Heroic Leadership. Offering a present-day interpretation, he noted that attachments like greed or pride can hamper entrepreneurs by breeding a fear of failure and a reluctance to try new things.

Lesson #2: They led with love.

Unlike Niccolò Machiavelli, one of his contemporaries, Ignatius counseled Jesuits to lead with “greater love than fear,” tapping the energizing power of mutual affection, Lowney writes. Traveling in Asia, Francis Xavier carried papers bearing his fellow Jesuits’ signatures as an inspiring reminder of their love for him. For modern-day entrepreneurs, this might mean wanting one’s team members to flourish and reach their potential—which could mean challenging them when necessary, Lowney said.

Lesson #3: They adapted to new environments.

The Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci made inroads in China, after so many Europeans had failed, through enculturation: He learned Chinese, adopted Chinese dress, and shared his knowledge of geometry and astronomy, Lowney writes. Ricci’s predecessor in Asia, Francis Xavier, also “showed a remarkable respect for the cultures he was meeting” when he traveled to Japan, Lowney said. “He was way, way ahead of his time.”

Lesson #4: They reflected deeply on their purpose.

Former Jesuit Sal Giambanco, GSAS ’90, sees parallels between the entrepreneurial mindset and the self-knowledge fostered by the Spiritual Exercises, the four-week system of meditation and prayer created by Ignatius. “It’s about seeing things and patterns that haven’t existed before,” said Giambanco, an early employee and senior executive at four startups, including PayPal, where he was the first head of human capital, administration, facilities, and security. “You go into the silence, [and] you embrace that silence, such that you can then bring those insights into having effective change in the world. And if you think about it, that really is the mindset of the entrepreneur.”

Lesson #5: They sought input and brought out the best in others.

Contrary to the idea of the solo creative genius driving an enterprise, the best leaders foster collaboration—and innovation—by stepping back and “leaving the room” after posing a tough question to their teams, said Angelo Santinelli, GABELLI ’84, an entrepreneur and business educator who co-chairs the advisory board for the Fordham Foundry, the University’s entrepreneurship hub.

He often saw the Jesuits take that approach in the classroom when he was a student at Fordham, he said. In a collaborative workspace where everyone feels valued, “you’re constantly pushing the envelope and getting something better,” he said.

This was the focus of “Leading in Difficult Times,” an April 7 presentation by Chris Lowney, FCRH ’81, GSAS ’81, that was part of the Fordham University Alumni Association’s Forever Learning Month.

During his presentation, Lowney, the author of six books, including Make Today Matter (Loyola Press, 2018), talked about the past year in terms of the acronym VUCA: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, economic difficulties, and the need to foster equity in the workplace and society, leaders have had to find creative ways to build skills and inspire colleagues and constituents. When Lowney prompted the more than 30 attendees to state whether there was more or less volatility, complexity, and change today than there was 15 years ago, every respondent in the Zoom chat said they believed there is more now.

He cautioned the audience not to think of this past year as an exception, though, instead urging them to look at it as a somewhat more extreme version of the world in which we will continue to live. He also made clear that when talking about leadership, we shouldn’t just think about public figures, or even just high-level managers.

“I’m not talking about Pope Francis, Barack Obama, Joe Biden,” Lowney said of his definition of leaders. “I’m talking about every one of us. We’re all implicitly pointing out a way [for each other]and having an influence.”

In breakout rooms and after returning to the full group, attendees talked about what they’ve learned about leadership over the past 12 months. Patrick McGuire, Ed.D., GRE ’86, shared that volunteering has ­­been an essential part of his life, echoing Lowney’s call for gratitude in the face of so much suffering and hardship.

Jackie Fenley, TMC ’68, shared her efforts to cherish the things she has in her life even when losing touchstones, and Sharmini Pardo, GABELLI ’02, said she had learned many lessons about both joy and gratitude from her children in the past year.

“My kids have the innate ability to live in the present,” Pardo said. “They wake up in the morning, and they jump out of bed, and they’re excited that it’s a new day. I think as adults, we lose some of that, so I’ve been trying to appreciate it.”

Lowney’s experience is well-tailored to conversations about how to employ those values, as he began his own career journey with spiritual contemplation. As an 18-year-old, Lowney entered a novitiate with the plan to become a Jesuit priest, but as he told Fordham Magazine in 2018, “life happened. I discerned that my calling in the world lay outside the Jesuits.”

Lowney left the order in the 1980s after earning degrees in medieval history and philosophy at Fordham, and he went on to become a managing director at J.P. Morgan & Co. He published his first book, Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World (Loyola Press), in 2003, shortly after leaving J.P. Morgan.

In 2006, he established a nonprofit, Pilgrimage for Our Children’s Future, to support education and health care initiatives throughout the world, and he also co-founded Contemplative Leaders in Action, an emerging leader formation program now active in a half-dozen cities. He is currently the vice chair of the board of CommonSpirit Health, America’s largest nonprofit health system, regularly writes about leadership strategy for Forbes, and has been an adjunct professor at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business.

Even as a student at Fordham, Lowney recognized the value of Jesuit ideals and how they can serve as a foundation for a lifetime of both learning and leading. While introducing Lowney to the attendees, John Pettenati, FCRH ’81, chair of the Fordham University Alumni Association, read a quote that his classmate contributed to their 1981 yearbook, where Lowney was highlighted as a “Tomorrow Scholar”: “Jesuit education is supported by a wisdom of what it means to be human.”

Forever Learning Month events will take place throughout April. For a full list of events, all of which are free to attend, visit Forever Fordham.

In his latest book, Make Today Matter (Loyola Press, 2018), best-selling author Chris Lowney, FCRH ’81, GSAS ’81, identifies 10 habits to help readers cultivate greater self-awareness, stick to their ideals, and learn to recognize the “inner demons” that threaten to derail them from a happier, more effective life. He reminds readers that, although life is filled with uncertainty, we ultimately control “what matters most: how [we] behave, react to life’s vicissitudes, and treat others along the way.”

In short chapters with titles like “Change Your Little Part of the World” and “Be More Grateful,” he shares stories of teachers, nurses, executives, and others who model these habits. With self-deprecating wit, he also shares stories from his own experiences.

For the past five years, Lowney has served as chair of the board of Catholic Health Initiatives, one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States. But he has had a multifaceted career, one that has included several major transitions he did not foresee.

“As an eighteen-year-old,” he writes, “I imagined that my high-beam headlights were illuminating a straight path through life and all the way to my deathbed: I entered a novitiate that year, fully expecting to end my days as a Jesuit priest. Then life happened. I discerned that my calling in the world lay outside the Jesuits.” He left the order in the 1980s, after earning degrees in medieval history and philosophy at Fordham, and went on to become a managing director at J.P. Morgan & Co., leading groups in New York, Tokyo, Singapore, and London.

In 2003, not long after leaving J.P. Morgan, he published his first book: Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World. In it, he drew on his rich knowledge of Jesuit history and teachings, as well as nearly two decades of experience in international banking, to present St. Ignatius’ compañía, the Society of Jesus, as a model of business leadership for the 21st century.

For Lowney, the Jesuits have been successful for centuries partly because they offer a way of thinking about leadership that is fundamentally different than most popular models. Instead of taking a top-down approach, focusing solely on the insights of people in charge, Jesuit training is based on the premise that each person can tap into their leadership potential by continually cultivating greater self-awareness. Heroic Leadership became a bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.

Since then, Lowney has published five other books, including Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads (Loyola Press, 2013), and lectured in more than two-dozen countries on business ethics, decision-making, and other topics. In 2006, he established a nonprofit, Pilgrimage for Our Children’s Future, to support various education and healthcare initiatives throughout the world.

He has also been an adjunct professor at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business, where for the past two years he co-taught a course on leadership for MBA and Executive MBA students, guiding them—literally—in the footsteps of St. Ignatius. Students in the course travel to Spain in early October and trek some of the same route walked by Ignatius 500 years ago. In the process, Lowney told Fordham News in 2016, he and the students learn “about perseverance, planning, coaching, empathy, setting goals that will carry us forward, and, above all, about being self-aware people with a deep sense of purpose.”

Fordham Five

What are you most passionate about?
I’m passionate about the idea of becoming a great person who uses my gifts well, and for purposes greater than self (a “man for others” to put it in Jesuit speak). But note that I say I’m passionate about the idea of being such a person. As for putting it into action, I’m still rather self-absorbed, easily derailed, and not-quite-courageous.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
“The most successful people I know are good at Plan B,” said James Yorke, one of the mathematician-pioneers of chaos theory. I’ve found it a very liberating idea (though I admittedly spin it beyond his initial concept). Whether it’s writing books or creating strategic plans for entrepreneurial ventures I’ve been involved with, it won’t come out perfectly the first time. So what? Let’s try our best, learn from failures, course correct, make plan B better, and have some fun along the way. That way of thinking leapfrogs the analysis-paralyzed fear of failure that so often stalls individuals and organizations. The literary-minded might prefer Samuel Beckett’s rendering of the same idea: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

What’s your favorite place in New York City?
Hmm. How about 93rd Street and 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens. That’s where I grew up. My apartment building, church, school, and playground all on one block; passels of kids, always up for stickball, skully, cannon sticks, manhunt, etc. Granted, that block would look pretty nondescript to a visitor. But I guess that’s part of the point? Ultimately, it’s the people that turn places into favorites, no? But if you want a spot with more pizzazz, how about Wave Hill in my adopted borough, the Bronx. Go there for Sunset Wednesdays in the summer! You’ll love it.

What book has had a lasting influence on you?
The Acts of the Apostles. The Catholic Church is suffering a profound crisis. Consider, for example, our inability to engage young people as one serious challenge among many: When are we going to confront our challenges frankly and tackle them with creativity and urgency? We 21st-century Catholics have to drink whatever Kool-Aid those first-century Christians were drinking in the Acts of the Apostles. (It was, of course, the Holy Spirit that they imbibed.) Granted, Acts is not exactly a Tom Clancy-style thriller, but it’s a thriller nonetheless: frontier spirit, internal squabbles, shipwreck, and cameo leadership roles from holy entrepreneurs like Lydia, Priscilla, and Phoebe the Deacon. (Notice anything about those names?)

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
Technology (think app-laden smartphones) is turning life into a “look at me” production. I’m edified and humbled by unsung Fordham alums around my time who do great things daily without broadcasting their derring-do for social media oohs and aahs. I’m thinking of J, a lawyer who helps lead a great social services agency for the impoverished; and of M, who helps deliver healthcare services for prison-involved populations; and of M, M, and plenty more like them: self-sacrificing parents who have set great examples for their kids.

This semester, a group of Gabelli School MBA and Executive MBA students traveled part of the same route, reflecting on their personal experiences and using those reflections to build leadership skills.

The trip was part of a course called Jesuit History and Leadership Culture, designed to teach students how life experience, and the self-awareness it generates, are keys to being an effective leader.

The trip marked the first time a Jesuit business school has experienced the trek from a Jesuit historical, cultural, and leadership development perspective, said Chris Lowney, FCRH ’81, GSAS ’81, the Fordham graduate and adjunct faculty member who taught the class.

“The path to great leadership is a personal journey,” said Lowney, a former managing director of JP Morgan and a former Jesuit seminarian. “We used our physical journey through this part of Spain to think, each of us, about our life journeys to become better leaders.”

The class arrived in Barcelona on Oct. 2 for their 71-mile journey. Each day of the trip allowed time for reading and reflection, with the primary reading assignment being Lowney’s book, Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company that Changed the World (Loyola Press, 2005). The “company” in question is the Jesuit order; the book recounts how the Jesuits have been guided by the principles of love, self-awareness, and heroism, all of which are integral to successful leadership.

Class member Angel Cardoza, a general manager at Con Edison, said reading Heroic Leadership was influential and beneficial throughout the weeklong journey.

“I had a moment of sudden realization that [St. Ignatius] utilized the leadership pillar of love throughout the years,” said Cardoza. “This experience caused me to self-reflect, assess, and modify my leadership pillars as I lead my organization toward excellence,”

The on-foot journey got underway in Palau D’Anglesola, a village in the province of Lleida within the community of Catalonia. The group walked between 10 and 15 miles daily, passing rolling plains and valleys as well as cultivated grain fields and vineyards.

Starting on their second day, two students from the group took responsibility for keeping the rest on schedule. Each day a different pair shared this task, representing the different people who take on a leadership role and help a company keep moving.

These types of experiences taught the group “about perseverance, planning, coaching, empathy, setting goals that will carry us forward, and, above all, about being self-aware people with a deep sense of purpose,” Lowney noted.

Along the way, the students spent a night in Igualada, a municipality in the province of Barcelona. The history-filled city contains narrow, irregular streets as well as remainders of ramparts and a fortress dating back to the 11th century. Surrounding this “old town” is a newer one with wider streets and luxurious homes.

The juxtaposition of old and new echoed one of the questions students were asked to ponder after every day of the trip, one to apply in the workplace as well: “Are you going to make any changes in your demeanor, communication styles, and attitudes?”

The last leg of the trip brought the group to Manresa, the capital of the comarca of Bages and a place of pilgrimage for Catholics everywhere. It is the place where St. Ignatius stopped to pray on his journey and read in isolation in a nearby cave over the course of one year. There, he created the Spiritual Exercises.

The group returned by bus to Barcelona with new memories and meaning gained from their expedition.

Overall, the Camino journey gave students a chance to reflect upon their working styles and gain a clearer view of themselves to help them in their leadership roles.

–Casey Shenloogian

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By Stevenson Swanson

One of the highlights of Pope Francis’ five-day visit to the Philippines in January was an open-air Mass in Tacloban, a city of more than 200,000 people that had been devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013. He told the crowd of several hundred thousand gathered at the airport that he came to Tacloban because he wanted to express his closeness to “our brothers and sisters who endured suffering, loss, and devastation.”

He did not talk about the environment or climate change, issues that are important to him and have been sources of much speculation since he announced they would be the subject of an encyclical—reserved for a pope’s most important teachings—later this year. Then again, he did not really need to mention them.

After all, his trip to the city had been moved up and shortened because of an approaching storm, and the Mass was held in a drenching downpour with high winds. Like everyone else there that day, the pope wore a poncho.

“The environment was front and center,” said Henry Schwalbenberg, PhD, director of Fordham’s master’s degree program in international political economy and development (IPED), who was there with some of his students. “He was trying to help people deal with the suffering in their lives that was caused by an environmental event—in the middle of a tropical storm.

“The organizers offered him the choice of saying Mass in a tent, but he refused the indoor option. I think the rain and the storm were right on for what he wanted.”

Slapping Nature in the Face

Weather is not the same thing as climate. Single weather events such as Typhoon Haiyan or Hurricane Sandy, which wreaked havoc on the U.S. East Coast in 2012, cannot definitively be attributed to climate change. But scientists who study climate patterns over longer periods of time predict that extreme weather will increase in the future as a consequence of the rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere. Climate-change skeptics still dispute that, but atmospheric greenhouse gases are undoubtedly rising. And the pope has made it clear who he thinks is responsible for the increase.

“Mostly, in great part, it is man who has slapped nature in the face,” he said in a press conference during his flight to the Philippines. “We have in a sense taken over nature.”

It is perhaps not surprising that the man who took the name Francis when he was elected pope—after Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the environment—would make environmental issues a priority of his papacy.

“He’s changed the tone of the conversation within the church and gotten the attention of people who might not have paid attention to this issue,” said Paolo Galizzi, a clinical professor at Fordham Law School who specializes in international environmental law and human rights.

But what in the pope’s background and training accounts for this dedication? And what can be expected when his encyclical is issued, probably in the early summer?

One place to look for the source of the pope’s dedication to environmental issues is in his training as a Jesuit, according to Chris Lowney, FCRH ’81, GSAS ’81, author of Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads (Loyola Press, 2013). Lowney notes that one of the spiritual exercises that originated with Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, is to “find God in all things.”

“I can easily see how the pope’s Jesuit formation reinforces the idea that we are stewards of God’s creation and that God is somehow present in all of creation,” said Lowney, a former Jesuit seminarian and investment banker who now chairs the board of Catholic Health Initiatives. “So, therefore, we have a duty to look after it responsibly.”

Christiana Peppard, PhD, assistant professor of theology, science, and ethics at Fordham, agrees that Francis’ devotion to nature has a theological basis, but it also has an ethical component based on who’s responsible for environmental problems—and who suffers most from the impact of those problems.

“Climate change, which is driven predominantly by highly developed states like the U.S., tends to disproportionately affect the poor,” said Peppard, author of Just Water: Theology, Ethics, and the Global Water Crisis (Orbis Books, 2014). “And they didn’t cause the problem in the first place.”

The Inequality of Climate Change

Although in recent years China has become the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, the bulk of the greenhouse gases that have accumulated in the atmosphere were the product of the industrialized nations of Europe and, especially, America. Yet many of the countries that will be hit hardest by the effects of climate change are developing nations where large swaths of the population live in poorly built housing and the infrastructure to resist or respond to disasters is rudimentary at best.

“If you are living on a dollar a day or less, it’s very difficult to deal with everyday realities such as feeding your family, let alone things like flooding that’s caused by climate change,” said Galizzi.

Josh Kyller sees this challenge play out daily in his work as the emergency coordinator for Catholic Relief Services on the Philippine islands of Leyte and Samar, where he oversees a staff of about 300 people working to help residents rebuild their lives. He recites the grim statistics of Haiyan’s destructive power in the area: Thousands perished, and 10 million people were displaced.

The outpouring of international relief and Filipinos’ eagerness to rebuild has led to significant progress in the recovery, but Kyller and his staff are still helping 100,000 households in efforts to rebuild homes, provide clean water and proper sewage, and reduce exposure to future disasters.

“Tacloban is a kind of boom town,” said Kyller, a 2011 graduate of Fordham’s IPED program, who was with Schwalbenberg and his students at the pope’s Mass in January. “But there’s still a long road ahead.”

Concern for the poor and vulnerable has been a constant theme in Pope Francis’ life. But his positions are not that different from those of his immediate papal predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who wrote extensively about poverty and economic justice, according to Peppard, although Americans may not associate them as strongly with such issues because of the U.S. church’s focus on the pontiffs’ positions on reproduction and other social issues.

“Pope Francis’ teachings are not new. They’re being articulated anew by him,” she said. “But no one has written an encyclical focused on the environment. That is new.”

Schwalbenberg said that the pope is likely to link environmental degradation and economic justice in a way his predecessors did not. “I think Francis’ emphasis will be to wed the environment very tightly to a preferential treatment for the poor.”

As for the expertise that will underpin the encyclical, Francis is likely to draw on the information presented at a four-day workshop on sustainability issues that was held at the Vatican last May and brought together several dozen scientists, theologians, philosophers, and economists, including four Nobel laureates. He is expected to issue his encyclical in June or July because he wants to increase the odds that it will make an impact on the next round of international climate negotiations, which will take place in Paris in November.

The Pope’s Political Critics

Although the exact contents of the papal letter are not known, that has not stopped what Peppard calls preemptive criticism of the encyclical, prompted at least in part by the pope’s occasionally sharp remarks about what he has called “unfettered free-market capitalism.”

Last fall, for example, he addressed a global group of grassroots organizers, saying that an economic system centered only on money would “plunder nature” to sustain “frenetic” levels of consumption. “Climate change, the loss of biodiversity, deforestation are already showing their devastating effects … from which you, the humble, suffer the most.”

Taken as a whole, his critics say, Francis’ views amount to socialism at best, communism at worst. In their view, the free market, far from being the source of inequality, is the great engine that will pull the world’s poor out of misery.

“Pope Francis—and I say this as a Catholic—is a complete disaster when it comes to his public policy pronouncements,” Stephen Moore, chief economist of the Heritage Foundation, has written. “On the economy, and even more so on the environment, the pope has allied himself with the far left and has embraced an ideology that would make people poorer and less free.”

The encyclical and Francis’ addresses to the United Nations and U.S. Congress, both of which are set to take place in September, are unlikely to persuade conservative critics such as Moore or deeply entrenched climate-change skeptics such as Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who last February brandished a snowball in the Senate chamber to dramatize the cold winter in the nation’s capital, decrying what he called the “hysteria” about global warming.

“If the overwhelming science hasn’t been able to persuade you, I am not sure what else can happen to convince you that climate is a problem,” said Galizzi. “Having said that, the encyclical has the potential to reach people who don’t pay attention to these issues.”

Schwalbenberg agrees. He cites the example of a Connecticut businessman he knows, whom he describes as “a very devout Catholic” who’s not interested in the environment. “But because the pope is talking about it, he’s going to think about it.”

An Expansive View of Life

Theologically, the encyclical could also be a way to redefine what constitutes a “life” issue for the Catholic Church.

“It will be an opportunity to see that there’s more at stake in Catholic ethics in the 21st century than reproduction, abortion, and euthanasia,” Peppard said. “If the church is concerned about life, that need not be a selective lens.”

But what about results, such as a firm commitment by the nations of the world to reduce greenhouse emissions when they meet in Paris?

Given the complexities of getting so many countries, with their varying national interests, to agree on anything, the odds may not be in Francis’ favor. On the other hand, he is a singular figure, the leader of a worldwide institution with 1.2 billion members but no national interests to defend, no reelection campaign to wage.

“He has won great credibility by his example of humility and his reputation as a truth-teller who speaks plainly. So few politicians nowadays can speak with that same credibility,” said Lowney. “He would seem as well-positioned as anyone to win a hearing for the issue of how we steward the Earth.”

—Stevenson Swanson is a freelance journalist who has written about religion, the United Nations, and the environment, among other topics.

“America needs people who can distinguish ends from means, make great choices and reflect daily on what is happening,” said Chris Lowney (FCRH ’81, GSAS ’81), a former managing director at J. P. Morgan and author of Heroic Living: Discover Your Purpose and Change the World (Loyola Press, 2009).

Lowney, a former Jesuit seminarian, delivered the 2010 Spring Gannon Lecture, “Could St. Ignatius Loyola’sSpiritual Exercises Have Spared Us the 2008 Wall Street Crash?” on Fordham’s Rose Hill campus.

The Spiritual Exercises are a month-long series of meditations, prayers, considerations and contemplative practices that help strengthen the Catholic faith in contemporary people. It presents a formulation of Ignatius’ spirituality in a series of prayer exercises, thought experiments and examinations of consciousness—all designed to help people experience a deeper conversion into life with God.

“The Spiritual Exercises are incredibly powerful tools to help individuals acquire exactly these habits, outlooks, and skills,” Lowney said.

Every fully formed Jesuit undertakes a 30-day experience of the Exercises twice, once in training and again a decade later. Each Jesuit is further expected, every year, to engage them again for eight days.

So could those exercises have averted the Wall Street crash of 2008?

“Unfortunately, probably not,” Lowney said. “But the title was not flip. My bottom line is that by internalizing dynamics of the Exercises, professionals on Wall Street could have made better choices that would have ameliorated the scale of meltdown we’ve suffered.

“By the way, those same dynamics help parents, university professors, students and nurses to do their jobs better, too,” he said.

So what led to the financial meltdown of 2008?

“Human beings were involved, and human beings made horrific decisions that exacerbated the crisis,” Lowney said. “Some decisions were merely dumb; others were dumb, reckless and immoral.”

While much of the post-crash punditry has revolved around issues of regulation or moral platitudes like, “Don’t be greedy,” it is humans who decide how much risk is too much, whether a derivative should be more tightly regulated, or whether to act greedily in business dealings, Lowney said.

“Virtually no attention has been paid to help sharpen the decision-making skills of the human actors in this industry,” he said. “This is where Ignatius and his Exercises can contribute critically.”

Lowney focused on five cultural crises that contributed to the 2008 catastrophe and how Ignatius’ spiritual technologies could help turn those who work in the financial industry into better decision makers:

•    Embracing purpose beyond self in a culture that presses us to pursue self-interest alone. “St. Ignatitus’Exercises force participants to reflect deeply about human purpose before making decisions about their own careers or the lives of others.”
•    Distinguishing ends from means in a world that has collapsed the distinction between ends and means. “We court problems when we become so fixated on any means, however good, that we forget to think about purpose; or, in worst cases, where we turn a means into an end.”
•    Making free, purpose-driven choices rather than acting on unhealthy attachments. “As Ignatius would see it, we humans often choose badly not because we lack data or analytical tools, but because we are gripped by ‘disordered attachments,’ unfreedoms or desires or biases that undermine our decision-making ability.”
•    Developing a habit of reflection in a world that just moves on.
•    Becoming courageous leaders in a world with too few of them.

“The Exercises’ real power, when they work well, is in integrating a methodology for making decisions with the courage and commitment to live those choices,” Lowney said.

Edie Mauriello, who served as secretary for the Department of Theology for 22 years, was honored at a reception before the Gannon Lecture.

“The Exercises can be a source of great advantage to a financial industry that needs better-skilled decision-makers, a source of remarkable competitive advantage to the university that can produce such individuals, and, above all, a source of profound spiritual formation for students, staff and administrators of this University,” he said. “Let’s use this tool.”

At a dean’s reception that took place before the lecture, administrators honored Edie Mauriello, a retired Fordham employee who served for 22 years as the senior secretary in the Department of Theology. Mauriello was an invaluable resource for graduate students, whom she was said to “shepherd through each and every station of their studies.”

“Edie is famous for her calm disposition, discretion and a giving advice to the lovelorn,” said Joseph T. Leinhard, S.J., professor of theology. “She is a wonderful friend, mentor and guide.”