At noon today, local time in Rome (6:00am EST), in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience those who are participating in the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for Catholic Education (the Institutes of Study).
Your Eminences,
Dear brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters!
I thank Cardinal Versaldi for the courteous words of introduction and I cordially greet all of you. Your gathering in this Plenary Assembly has given you the opportunity in these past days to re-read the dense work done in the past three years and to trace future commitments with an open heart and with hope. The field of competence of the Dicastery commits you to immerse yourself in the fascinating world of education, which is never a repetitive action, but the art of growth, of maturation, and for this reason it is never equal to itself.
Education is a dynamic reality, it is a movement that brings people to light. It is a peculiar kind of movement, with characteristics that make it a dynamism of growth, oriented to the full development of the person in his individual and social dimension. I would like to dwell on some of its typical features.
One property of education is that of being an ecological movement. It is one of its driving forces towards the complete training objective. The education that focuses on the person in his integral reality has the aim of bringing him to the knowledge of himself, of the common home in which he is placed to live and above all to the discovery of fraternity as a relationship that produces the multicultural composition of humanity, a source of mutual enrichment.
This educational movement, as I wrote in the Encyclical Laudato Si ', contributes to the recovery of the different levels of the ecological balance: the inner one with oneself, the one in solidarity with others, the natural one with all living beings, the spiritual one with God. This requires, of course, educators who are capable of resetting the pedagogical routes of an ecological ethics, so that they actually help to grow in solidarity, responsibility and care based on compassion (LS, 210).
As for the method, education is an inclusive movement. An inclusion that goes towards all the excluded: those who are excluded because of poverty, or vulnerability due to wars, famines and natural disasters, or social selectivity, or family and existential difficulties. An inclusion that materializes in educational actions in favour of refugees, victims of trafficking in human beings or migrants, without any distinction based on sex, religion or ethnicity. Inclusion is not a modern invention, but it is an integral part of the Christian message of salvation. Today it is necessary to accelerate this inclusive movement of education to stem the culture of waste, originating from the refusal of fraternity as a constitutive element of humanity.
Another typical aspect of education is that of being a peacemaking movement. It is harmonious - then I will talk about it, but they are connected -, a peace-making movement, a bearer of peace. Young people themselves bear witness to this; with their commitment and with their thirst for truth, they constantly remind us that hope is not a utopia and peace is always a possible good (Address to the Members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, 9 January 2020). The peace-building educational movement is a force to be nurtured against egotism which generates non-peace and fractures between generations, between peoples, between cultures, between rich and poor populations, between male and female, between economics and ethics, between humanity and the environment (cf. Congregation for Catholic Education, Global Educational Pact. Instrumentum laboris, 2020). These fractures and contrasts, which make relationships sick, hide a fear of diversity and difference. For this reason, education is called with its pacifying force to train people capable of understanding that diversity does not hinder unity, rather each person is indispensable for the richness of one's own identity and that of everyone.
Another typical element of education is that of being a team movement. It is never the action of a single person or institution. The Conciliar Declaration Gravissimum educationis affirms that the school establishes as it were a centre whose work and progress must be shared together by families, teachers, associations of various types that foster cultural, civic, and religious life, as well as by civil society and the entire human community (GE, 5). For its part, the Apostolic Constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae, which marks the thirtieth anniversary of its promulgation, states that a Catholic University pursues its objectives through its formation of an authentic human community animated by the spirit of Christ (ECE, 21). But every university is called to be a community of study, research and formation (Apostolic Constitution Veritatis gaudium, article 11 § 1).
This team movement has long been in crisis for several reasons. Therefore I felt the need to promote the day for the global educational pact for next May 14, entrusting its organization to the Congregation for Catholic Education. It is an appeal addressed to all those who have political, administrative, religious and educational responsibilities to recompose the education village. Being together does not aim to develop programs, but to find the common step "to revive the commitment for and with the younger generations, renewing the passion for a more open and inclusive education, capable of patient listening, constructive dialogue and mutual understanding. The educational pact must not be a simple order, it must not be a 'temporary fix' of the positivisms we have received from an Enlightenment education. It must be revolutionary.
Never before has there been a need to join efforts in a broad educational alliance to train mature people, capable of overcoming fragmentation and opposition and rebuilding the fabric of relationships for a more fraternal humanity. To achieve these goals it takes courage: «The courage to put the person at the centre ... The courage to invest the best energies ... The courage to train people who can be available to serve the community (Message for the launch of the Educational Pact, 12 September 2019). The courage to pay educators well.
I see in the formation of a global educational pact also the facilitation of the growth of an inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary alliance, which the recent Apostolic Constitution Veritatis gaudium has indicated for ecclesiastical studies, but it is valid for all studies, as a vital and intellectual principle of the unity of knowledge in the distinction and in respect of its multiple, correlated and converging expressions, ... also in relation to the fragmented and often disintegrated panorama of university studies today and to the uncertain, conflictual or relativistic pluralism of beliefs and cultural options (Preamble, 4 c).
In this broad horizon of education, I wish you to continue profitably in the realization of the program for the next few years, in particular in the drafting of a Directory, in the establishment of a world Observatory, as well as in the qualification and updating of ecclesiastical studies and in a greater concern for university pastoral work as an instrument of new evangelization. These are all commitments that can contribute effectively to consolidating the covenant, in the sense taught us by the Word of God: the covenant between God and men, the covenant between generations, the covenant between peoples and cultures, the covenant - in school - between teachers and students and also parents, the pact between man, animals, plants and even the inanimate realities that make our common home beautiful and colourful. Everything lives in relationship with everything else, everything is created to be a living icon of God who is the Trinity of Love! (Speech to the academic community of the Sophia University Institute of Loppiano, November 14, 2019).
Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for the work that you are doing with dedication every day. I invoke upon you the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that He may give you strength in your delicate ministry in favour of education. And, I ask you please, to pray for me. Thank you.
Testo originale nella lingua italiana
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to the Plenary Assembly
of the Congregation for Catholic Education
Your Eminences,
Dear brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters!
I thank Cardinal Versaldi for the courteous words of introduction and I cordially greet all of you. Your gathering in this Plenary Assembly has given you the opportunity in these past days to re-read the dense work done in the past three years and to trace future commitments with an open heart and with hope. The field of competence of the Dicastery commits you to immerse yourself in the fascinating world of education, which is never a repetitive action, but the art of growth, of maturation, and for this reason it is never equal to itself.
Education is a dynamic reality, it is a movement that brings people to light. It is a peculiar kind of movement, with characteristics that make it a dynamism of growth, oriented to the full development of the person in his individual and social dimension. I would like to dwell on some of its typical features.
One property of education is that of being an ecological movement. It is one of its driving forces towards the complete training objective. The education that focuses on the person in his integral reality has the aim of bringing him to the knowledge of himself, of the common home in which he is placed to live and above all to the discovery of fraternity as a relationship that produces the multicultural composition of humanity, a source of mutual enrichment.
This educational movement, as I wrote in the Encyclical Laudato Si ', contributes to the recovery of the different levels of the ecological balance: the inner one with oneself, the one in solidarity with others, the natural one with all living beings, the spiritual one with God. This requires, of course, educators who are capable of resetting the pedagogical routes of an ecological ethics, so that they actually help to grow in solidarity, responsibility and care based on compassion (LS, 210).
As for the method, education is an inclusive movement. An inclusion that goes towards all the excluded: those who are excluded because of poverty, or vulnerability due to wars, famines and natural disasters, or social selectivity, or family and existential difficulties. An inclusion that materializes in educational actions in favour of refugees, victims of trafficking in human beings or migrants, without any distinction based on sex, religion or ethnicity. Inclusion is not a modern invention, but it is an integral part of the Christian message of salvation. Today it is necessary to accelerate this inclusive movement of education to stem the culture of waste, originating from the refusal of fraternity as a constitutive element of humanity.
Another typical aspect of education is that of being a peacemaking movement. It is harmonious - then I will talk about it, but they are connected -, a peace-making movement, a bearer of peace. Young people themselves bear witness to this; with their commitment and with their thirst for truth, they constantly remind us that hope is not a utopia and peace is always a possible good (Address to the Members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, 9 January 2020). The peace-building educational movement is a force to be nurtured against egotism which generates non-peace and fractures between generations, between peoples, between cultures, between rich and poor populations, between male and female, between economics and ethics, between humanity and the environment (cf. Congregation for Catholic Education, Global Educational Pact. Instrumentum laboris, 2020). These fractures and contrasts, which make relationships sick, hide a fear of diversity and difference. For this reason, education is called with its pacifying force to train people capable of understanding that diversity does not hinder unity, rather each person is indispensable for the richness of one's own identity and that of everyone.
Another typical element of education is that of being a team movement. It is never the action of a single person or institution. The Conciliar Declaration Gravissimum educationis affirms that the school establishes as it were a centre whose work and progress must be shared together by families, teachers, associations of various types that foster cultural, civic, and religious life, as well as by civil society and the entire human community (GE, 5). For its part, the Apostolic Constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae, which marks the thirtieth anniversary of its promulgation, states that a Catholic University pursues its objectives through its formation of an authentic human community animated by the spirit of Christ (ECE, 21). But every university is called to be a community of study, research and formation (Apostolic Constitution Veritatis gaudium, article 11 § 1).
This team movement has long been in crisis for several reasons. Therefore I felt the need to promote the day for the global educational pact for next May 14, entrusting its organization to the Congregation for Catholic Education. It is an appeal addressed to all those who have political, administrative, religious and educational responsibilities to recompose the education village. Being together does not aim to develop programs, but to find the common step "to revive the commitment for and with the younger generations, renewing the passion for a more open and inclusive education, capable of patient listening, constructive dialogue and mutual understanding. The educational pact must not be a simple order, it must not be a 'temporary fix' of the positivisms we have received from an Enlightenment education. It must be revolutionary.
Never before has there been a need to join efforts in a broad educational alliance to train mature people, capable of overcoming fragmentation and opposition and rebuilding the fabric of relationships for a more fraternal humanity. To achieve these goals it takes courage: «The courage to put the person at the centre ... The courage to invest the best energies ... The courage to train people who can be available to serve the community (Message for the launch of the Educational Pact, 12 September 2019). The courage to pay educators well.
I see in the formation of a global educational pact also the facilitation of the growth of an inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary alliance, which the recent Apostolic Constitution Veritatis gaudium has indicated for ecclesiastical studies, but it is valid for all studies, as a vital and intellectual principle of the unity of knowledge in the distinction and in respect of its multiple, correlated and converging expressions, ... also in relation to the fragmented and often disintegrated panorama of university studies today and to the uncertain, conflictual or relativistic pluralism of beliefs and cultural options (Preamble, 4 c).
In this broad horizon of education, I wish you to continue profitably in the realization of the program for the next few years, in particular in the drafting of a Directory, in the establishment of a world Observatory, as well as in the qualification and updating of ecclesiastical studies and in a greater concern for university pastoral work as an instrument of new evangelization. These are all commitments that can contribute effectively to consolidating the covenant, in the sense taught us by the Word of God: the covenant between God and men, the covenant between generations, the covenant between peoples and cultures, the covenant - in school - between teachers and students and also parents, the pact between man, animals, plants and even the inanimate realities that make our common home beautiful and colourful. Everything lives in relationship with everything else, everything is created to be a living icon of God who is the Trinity of Love! (Speech to the academic community of the Sophia University Institute of Loppiano, November 14, 2019).
Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for the work that you are doing with dedication every day. I invoke upon you the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that He may give you strength in your delicate ministry in favour of education. And, I ask you please, to pray for me. Thank you.
Testo originale nella lingua italiana
No comments:
Post a Comment