This paper articulates the central teachings of Pope Francis’s most recent encyclical, Dilexit Nos, and explains how these teachings can guide business leadership. Dilexit Nos offers spiritual guidance “On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ”. This spiritual encyclical concludes with a reminder about the importance of the love of Christ for the work to which the social encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti calls us. This newest encyclical invites a contemplative dimension that should orient all our activities in the world. Contemplation directed at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ enables us to center in our own hearts and from there discern what love truly calls us to do. Heart centered discernment is essential for ethical business leaders aiming to bring about justice and the common good.
While it is easier to apply social encyclicals directly to pragmatic fields like business, Jesuit business education invites spiritual considerations to guide our teaching, scholarship, and community engagements. Jesuits like Pope Francis seek to be “contemplatives in the midst of action”. Indeed, “The Inspirational Paradigm for Jesuit Business Education” identifies “a hunger for an adult spirituality” as a significant desire to which our schools need to respond and strengthen. Overall, the Paradigm intends to cultivate “a vision of the essential skills needed for this new kind of leadership”. Dilexit Nos offers many points of guidance that arise from an Ignatian sensibility as seen in the examples of the numerous famous Jesuits discussed in the encyclical. The encyclical discusses the role of the Sacred Heart in the spirituality of the Society of Jesus and articulates its role in the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. Dilexit Nos has clear relevance to Jesuit Business Schools. However, business is not discussed explicitly in the document other than in the context of Pope Francis’s ongoing critiques of markets that exacerbate consumerism and misuse technologies.
This paper takes up the challenging task of making sense of Pope Francis’s spiritual guidance given pragmatic considerations and applying his teachings to Jesuit Business Education. The point of intersection I identify concerns leadership education. A considerable literature in business has already developed around “leading from the heart”. Much of this guidance is broadly religious or Christian. There is a clear opportunity for Jesuit business leadership theories and praxes to be articulated in this space. This research develops a framework for Ignatian heart centered leadership inspired by the writings of Pope Francis. Starting from Dilexit Nos, I motivate the importance of the heart, articulating its meaning philosophically and theologically. I then explain its importance for Jesuit ways of proceeding and Ignatian spirituality. I then emphasize the communal themes of the final chapter of the encyclical, especially those dealing with forgiveness, reconciliation, and reparation. I show how these heart centered practices should inform care of creation and a civilization of love based on universal brotherhood and sisterhood, as envisioned in Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti. I articulate this guidance in ways that have practical relevance for leaders seeking to draw from a spirituality centered in the heart. Jesuit business schools need a framework and toolkit for applying these spiritual teachings of Pope Francis, so I aim to distill these insights in practicable ways.