The Pope: stimulating educational action that makes universal fraternity grow

Vatican City

Pope Francis addressed the participants of the Religions and Education Meeting and expressed “his closeness and gratitude to all teachers and, at the same time, our attention to education”.

For a Global Pact for Education

Francisco recalled that, on September 12, 2019, he launched a call for “dialogue on how we are building the future of the planet and on the need to invest the talents of all, because each change requires an educational path that makes us mature, a new universal solidarity and a more welcoming society ”.

Likewise, the Pope takes up the objective of the Global Pact for Education initiative: “to revive the commitment for and with the young generations, by renewing the passion for a more open and inclusive education, capable of patient listening. , constructive dialogue and mutual understanding ”.

An “educational alliance”

“Today more than ever, it is necessary to unite efforts for a educational alliance broad in order to form mature people, capable of overcoming fragmentation and oppositions and of rebuilding the fabric of relations for a more fraternal humanity ”, insists the Pope, while warning that“ If we want a more fraternal world, we must educate them. new generations “to recognize, value and love each person beyond physical proximity, beyond the place in the universe where they were born or where they live”.

The Pope highlights the need to affirm that integral formation “boils down to knowing oneself, knowing one’s brother, creation and the Transcendent. We cannot hide from the new generations the truths which give meaning to life ”.

Religions and education

The different religious traditions have walked together throughout history, affirms the Pope, for this reason, “As in the past also today, with the wisdom and humanity of our religious traditions, we want to stimulate action. educational renewal that can grow universal brotherhood. in the world “.

The Pope redefines the relationship between education and religions, insisting that while previously differences were stimulated, today “education commits us never to use the name of God to justify violence and hatred towards people. other religious traditions, to condemn any form of fanaticism or fundamentalism. and to defend the right of everyone to choose and act according to their own conscience ”.

If in the past different minorities were discriminated against in the name of religion, today “education commits us to welcoming the other as he is, not as I want him to be, as he is, and without to judge or condemn anyone ”.

Likewise, the Pope recalls that if “in the past the rights of women, minors and the weakest were not always respected, today we commit ourselves to firmly defend these rights and to teach new generations to be the voice of the voiceless (…) And education must make us understand that men and women are equal in dignity ”.

Referring to our role as “guardians of creation” and to the permissiveness that we have had to tolerate “the exploitation and the plunder of our common home, the Pope affirms:” education commits us to love our mother earth and to avoid wasting food and resources, in addition to being more willing to share the goods that God has not given for the life of all ”.

Educate the whole person

The Pope insists on the fact that the different religious traditions reinforce his mission to educate each one in his integrity: “that is to say the head, the hands, the heart and the soul. Think about what we feel and do; feel what we think and do; do what we feel and think. The harmony of human integrity, that is to say all the beauty of this harmony ”.

The Pope ended his message by inviting a minute of silence to “ask God to enlighten our minds, so that our dialogue may be fruitful and help us courageously follow the paths of new educational horizons”.