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A video message from the Pope opened the work of the conference on the “Global Pact for Education” (global pact for education) that takes place from 2.30 pm live broadcast on the Vatican News portal (and in the YouTube channels) of the Lateran University of Rome, venue of the event.
More than a year ago a “global compact” for education was launched. The pandemic has affected the programs, which today are going through this new stage of a journey destined to continue. A video message from Unesco Director General Audrey Azoulay will also be broadcast, while the leaders of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Cardinal Prefect Giuseppe Versaldi and Archbishop Secretary Vincenzo Zani will be present in the Lateran. The rectors Vincenzo Buonomo (Lateran) and Franco Anelli (Catholic University that will broadcast the event on their social profiles) are also expected to speak. LIVE STREAM BELOW
THE POPE’S VIDEO MESSAGE
Focusing on the educational issue, the Pope recalls in the video message that, according to more data, there is talk of an “educational catastrophe” before “the approximately ten million children who could be forced to leave school due to the economic crisis generated by the coronavirus, increasing an already alarming educational gap (with more than 250 million school-age children excluded from any educational activity) ”.
From a school point of view, an attempt was made to react to the pandemic with access to educational and IT platforms, which however showed a “marked disparity of opportunities”.
“It is time”, underlines the Pope, “to sign a global educational pact for and with the younger generations, which involves families, communities, schools and universities, institutions, religions, rulers, all humanity, in forming mature people”.
And in order not to miss the appointment with this historical moment, it is necessary to overcome the excessive simplifications flattened on the usefulness, it is necessary that the educational spaces do not conform to the logic of repetition, of standardized results, but that they are capable of generating “processes creative “in which hospitality, intergenerational solidarity and the value of transcendence establish a new culture: We are also aware that a life path needs hope based on solidarity, and that all change requires an educational path, to build new paradigms capable of responding to the challenges and emergencies of the contemporary world, to understand and find solutions. to the needs of each generation and to make the humanity of today and tomorrow flourish “.
Therefore, we need a “new cultural model”. In fact, education has transformative power. “Educating is always an act of hope”, he stresses, which breaks down fatalisms, which transforms the “sterile and paralyzing logic of indifference” into a different one, capable “of welcoming our common belonging”.
“We believe that education is one of the most effective ways to humanize the world and history. Education is above all a matter of love and responsibility that is transmitted over time from generation to generation. Education, therefore, is proposed as the natural antidote to individualistic culture, which sometimes degenerates into a true cult of the self and the primacy of indifference. Our future cannot be division, the impoverishment of the powers of thought and imagination, of listening, of dialogue and mutual understanding. Our future cannot be this. Today a renewed season of educational commitment is necessary, which involves all components of society ”.
Specifically, the commitment requested by the Pope is expressed in several points:
first of all, place the person and their dignity and ability to relate to others at the center of all educational process.
In second place, listen to the voice of children and young people to build a future of justice and peace together.
Third point, favor the participation of girls and boys in education.
Fourth point: “See the family as the first and indispensable educator”.
Fifth, education to welcome the marginalized.
the sixth The point emphasized by Francisco focuses on the commitment to seek other ways of understanding the economy, politics and progress so that they are at the service of the human family in the perspective of an integral ecology.
Seventh point, cultivate the common home with more sober styles according to the principles of subsidiarity, solidarity and circular economy.
The reference point of this educational project is the social doctrine which, he points out, inspired by the teachings of Revelation and Christian humanism, is offered as a “solid foundation” for finding ways to travel in the current emergency situation. Access to quality education must also be guaranteed to all.
The new encyclical “All Brothers” often resonates as the way forward for this process that asks everyone to be an active part. The courage to “generate processes” consists, in fact, also in assuming the oppositions that we carry and in recreating “the fabric of relationships in favor of a humanity capable of speaking the language of brotherhood.”
It is necessary to express being “other good Samaritans” so that the diversities can harmonize in the search for the common good. In short, it is what the Pope calls “the ability to create harmony” so important today.
“A different world is possible – he says – and asks that we learn to build it, and this involves all of our humanity, both personal and community.” His call, therefore, is addressed to men and women of culture, science and sports, artists, media operators, so that they too sign this pact, becoming promoters of the values of care, peace, justice, the good. , beauty, acceptance of the other and brotherhood.
But it’s also about hearing the cry of new generations for a renewed educational journey, which “does not look the other way” favoring “serious social injustices” and “rights violations”.
The Pope points out, therefore, those concrete realities in which young people run the risk of falling: loneliness and distrust of the future generate among young people “depression, addictions, aggressions, verbal hatred, bullying”. Furthermore, we must not remain indifferent to the “scourge of violence and abuse of minors, the phenomenon of girl brides and child soldiers, the tragedy of minors sold and enslaved”.
His concern for creation, wounded by exploitation, also resonates in the message of the video.
In history, Pope Francis recalls, there are moments when fundamental decisions must be made, especially taking into account possible future scenarios. “Great transformations are not built on a table,” he adds. There is an “architecture” of peace in which the different institutions and people of a society intervene, each according to their competence but without excluding anyone ”.
That is why we must move forward: all together, each one as he is, but always looking forward together, towards this construction of a civilization of harmony, of unity, where there is no place for this bad pandemic of the culture of waste.
Ongoing initiatives
The pandemic, then, in recent months, has not interrupted planning. Thus, the Education Village, where the best international educational experiences can be presented, has been transformed into a virtual space: more than 70 educational experiences have been carried out in the world and inspired in various ways by the themes of the Pact: dignity and human rights, peace and citizenship, integral ecology, fraternity and development. A journey, therefore, that does not end here.
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