Identity, Vision, Mission and Values

Our Identity

The Ateneo de Davao University is a Catholic, Jesuit, and Filipino University.

As a University, it is a community engaged in excellent instruction, wholistic formation, robust research, and vibrant community service.

As Catholic, it proceeds ex corde ecclesiae, from the heart of the Catholic Church.

As Jesuit, it lives out the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and the global mission of the Society of Jesus.

As Filipino, it commits to the Philippines’ attainment of peace, social justice, democracy, and sustainable development, with focus on Mindanao.

Our Vision

A world of global citizens in solidarity and community, inspired by their faith, working for peace, social justice, democracy, and sustainable development.

A nation rooted in God-centered values and empowering culture, with democratic leaders and engaged citizens forging a just, prosperous, sustainable, and peaceful society.

A Mindanao that enjoys sustainable peace and development, thriving in the diversity of its cultures and faith traditions.

Our Mission

We in the Ateneo de Davao University educate students through excellent academic instruction, robust research and innovation, and vibrant community engagement and advocacy for social transformation. Our education is rooted in the formation of values that are based on our Christian, Catholic, Ignatian, and Jesuit tradition. We aim to produce discerning leaders and citizens distinguished by their character, competence, compassion, conscience, courage, cultural-rootedness, and commitment to community and the common good.

Our Values

1. CURA PERSONALIS (CARE OF THE PERSON): We care for the holistic formation, growth, and wellbeing of the individual human person, in mind, heart, body, and spirit. We uphold the fundamental value of human life and human dignity. Our work of education is essentially formative and transformative of the intellectual, psychological, relational, affective, social, physical, and spiritual dimensions of authentic humanism.

2. CURA COMMUNITATIS (CARE OF COMMUNITY): We care for the nurturing of relationships toward building community. We respect and uphold diversity, and we work for unity in purpose and action, among all members of the University, and with external partners in mission. We deepen community life as “friends-in-the-Lord,” through commitment, collaboration, conversation, and celebration.

3. CURA SOCIETATIS (CARE OF SOCIETY): We care for society and its transformation toward our vision. Our ADDU education is essentially societal at different levels: Davao, Mindanao, the Philippines, and the world. We engage society through service and its various dimensions: social justice, empowerment of the poor, peacebuilding, civic participation, protection of human rights and democracy, advocacy for structural transformation, and the witness of responsible power for service of the common good, all grounded in Catholic social teachings.

4. CURA NATURAE (CARE OF NATURE): We care for our Earth, our Common Home, our sustainable future. Inspired by the call of Pope Francis (Laudato Si, Laudato Deum), we commit to protecting our global and local environment through environmental protection, sustainable resource management, climate change activism, and a spirituality of stewardship.

5. CURA APOSTOLICAE (CARE OF THE APOSTOLATE): We care for the apostolate, our means of being “apostles” or followers of Christ, which is through our work in the educational and intellectual apostolate. With humility, we nurture our role as facilitators of academic excellence, teachers of faith and ethics, exemplars of truth and virtue. We form ourselves and others as Prophetic and servant leaders. We journey with fellow educators and formators in the Church’s global mission of Catholic education.

6. CURA ECCLESIAE (CARE OF THE CHURCH): We care for the Church and its pastoral mission of evangelization. We respond to the call of Pope Francis to evangelize the Joy of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium) through our institutional mission. This inspires our work with the Local Church in Davao, extending to the Philippines, Asia, and the world, in communion with others (local clergy, religious organizations, lay faithful), in a spirit of synodality and profound interfaith dialogue.

7. CURA MISSIONIS SOCIETATIS IESU (CARE OF THE MISSION OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS): We care for the Society of Jesus, its ministries, and its global mission. We are rooted in Ignatian spirituality and its principles of discernment, companionship, magnanimity (magis), interiority, humility, and transcendence. We belong to the global community of Jesuits and lay colleagues co-discerning the signs of the times and its universal apostolic preferences. Through the diverse ministries of the Society of Jesus worldwide, we engage the world and its complexity, with the strength and courage of faith (Fortes in Fide).

Fortiores 2030, January 2025