Da pedagogia e missão de Santo Inácio à metodologia e missão comboniana

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, according to the reality of his time (fifteenth century), created an innovative pedagogy, capable of revolutionizing the entire education system. Since then, the Society of Jesus has had as its structuring basis a pedagogy that leads to an integral individual and community growth, spiritual and intellectual, where reason and faith meet in the relationship with Christ and with the brothers. Three centuries later, St. Daniel Comboni was born. He was also attentive to the reality that surrounds him and which, in the foundation of his Institutes, is based on Ignatian formation and pedagogy. But, as we can see today, the two Institutes are very different. The Comboni methodology is not merely a copy of Ignatian pedagogy. The latter, governed by the same principles, is very different. What makes the ways of applying Ignatian pedagogy so equal and so different? In my opinion, it is not a matter of a difference in the pedagogical model, but of a distinction in the journeys proposed by Ignatius and Comboni for the encounter of the (integral) human being with God - journeys that seek the same end: the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls.