Addressing Italy’s leading Catholic publishing group in the education sector, Pope Francis reiterated the need for an “educational pact” capable of uniting families, schools and society to face the new challenges of our time.
Vatican News
Pope Francis met on Thursday with a delegation from the Catholic publishing group La Scuola, one of the Italian leaders in the education sector.
The company was founded in 1904 in Brescia, northern Italy, by a group of laymen and priests who wanted to promote Catholic-inspired education in Italian schools and has since expanded with the acquisition of other Italian Catholic publishers, SEI and Kapitello.
In his speech, Pope Francis praised the company’s educational expertise and its continued service to education, saying that its achievements over the past 120 years have fulfilled the wishes expressed by Pope Paul VI in 1965, when he welcomed to a delegation from La Scuola Editriche, whose foundation his father had contributed to.
The Pope especially praised his perseverance in the face of competition and in adapting to the changing Italian cultural landscape, marked by a growing indifference to religious values.
“You are not afraid to take risks in difficult times marked by competition from major publishers and continuous cultural changes.”
His “passion” for education and teacher training, he said, “reflects the awareness that training young people in Gospel values provides an essential contribution to a society of responsible people who live in brotherhood with all.” to build relationships.”
Indeed, to be Catholic is to embrace the goodness found everywhere, as Vatican II taught, the Pope said in his encyclical ‘Fratelli Tutti’: “It is an attitude open to all and leads to a conversational approach.”
“School is, above all, a place where you learn to open your mind and heart to the world.”
And this is the main function of education, which is not only to impart knowledge, but also to promote human and spiritual development: education means “helping to think well, to feel well – the language of the heart – and to do good. Do – the language of the hands.”
The Pope commented: “This approach is particularly relevant today, when we feel the need for an educational agreement capable of uniting families, schools and all of society to face the epoch-making changes of our times.”
“The key to education is the unity of the school and the family, which is missing at this moment,” the Pope said.
The Pope recalled that this change is not a reason for mourning or fear, but rather “a new opportunity” to “generate a thirst for knowledge and wisdom” in the new generations, adding that “the Bible teaches us that in times of crisis, prophets “The voices have shown horizons of hope.”
Thus, in conclusion, Pope Francis encouraged the editors of “La Scuola” to continue their mission of promoting fraternity and hope through education, in line with the objective of its founders.
