«How beautiful it would be if one day your generation was recognized as the “plus generation”, remembered for the extra edge that you will be able to give to the Church and the world».
He seems particularly comfortable Pope Leo XIV, who dedicated a large part of his life to the education of young people as a professor of mathematics and physics and then in the Seminary, when on Thursday morning he meets the students participating in the Jubilee of the educational world scheduled these days in the Vatican.
The Paul VI Hall cannot contain them all and the Pope, before starting the meeting, greets, speaking off the cuff, the many young people who followed the meeting via the giant screens positioned outside. «I ask you to join forces to open a new educational season, in which all – young people and adults – become credible witnesses of truth and peace», is the initial appeal, after the quote from Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati – who he canonized last September 7 – and the invitation not to be satisfied with appearances or fashions, but to «constantly strive upwards, lighting the beacon of hope in the dark hours of history».
What the Pope addresses to the children is a very dense and evocative speech: «You are called to be truth-speakers and peace-makers, people of the word and builders of peace», he says, «involve your peers in the search for truth and in the cultivation of peace, expressing these two passions with your life, with words and daily gestures».
He insists greatly on the concept that the educational work is a collective work, where the we must prevail over the “I”, and in this regard he evokes a reflection of Saint John Henry Newman, who next Saturday will be proclaimed Doctor of the Church during the final Mass of the Jubilee of the educational world: «True peace is born when many lives, like stars, come together and form a plan. Together we can form educational constellations, which guide the future path». And he adds: «Even if there are billions of billions of stars, we only see the closest constellations», he explained, «But these show us a direction», and even the Magi followed them: «Like them, you too have guiding stars: parents, teachers, priests, friends, compasses to avoid getting lost in the happy and sad events of life. Like them, you are called to become luminous witnesses for those around you. Everyone is a star, and together you are called to guide the future.”
The Pope recalls that when Galileo Galilei pointed his telescope at the sky, he discovered new worlds: «This is what education is like: a telescope that allows you to look beyond, to discover what you wouldn’t see on your own. Don’t stop, then, to look at the smartphone and its very fast fragments of images: look towards the sky, upwards.” Because, he warns, «it is not enough to have great science if we don’t know who we are and what the meaning of life is. Without silence, without listening, without prayer, even the stars go out.”
The Augustinian Pope reminds children that «we can know a lot about the world and ignore our hearts. You too may have felt that feeling of emptiness, of restlessness that doesn’t leave you in peace. In the most serious cases, we witness episodes of discomfort, violence, bullying, oppression, even young people who isolate themselves and no longer want to relate to others”, is Leone’s complaint, “I think that behind these sufferings there is also the void created by a society incapable of educating the spiritual, not only technical, social and moral dimension of the human person».
He uses the famous phrase of Saint Augustine, “My heart is restless until it rests in You”, to explain what it means to educate about the interior life: «Listen to our restlessness, don’t run away from it or stuff it with what doesn’t satisfy. Our desire for the infinite is the compass that tells us: “Don’t settle, you are made for something greater”“don’t get by, but live”».
The Pope defines young people as “masters” of digital technology but warns them: «Don’t let the algorithm write your story! Be the author: use technology wisely, but don’t let technology use you. You live inside it, and that’s not a bad thing: there are enormous opportunities for study and communication.”
Leone also makes a reference to Artificial Intelligence (AI): «It’s great news – one of the rerum novarumthat is, new things – of our time but it is not enough to be intelligent in virtual reality, we must be human with others, cultivating emotional, spiritual, social and ecological intelligence».
The message to students is clear: «Educate yourselves to humanize digital, building it as a space of brotherhood and creativity, not a cage to lock yourself in, not an addiction or an escape. Instead of internet tourists, be prophets in the digital world!». Cite the example of San Carlo Acutis«a boy who did not become a slave to the internet, but instead used it with skill for good» and who teaches us that digital «is educational when it does not close us in on ourselves, but opens us up to others: when it does not put you at the centre, but focuses you on God and on others».
Pope Leo reminds us that the path to peace also, and above all, passes through the educational dimension. Invite the kids to «be peacemakers first and foremost where you live, in your family, at school, in sport and among friends, reaching out to those who come from another culture» and even if we live in the context of a future « threatened by war and hatred that divide peoples » we must not despair or give up: «Can this future be changed? Certainly! As? With an unarmed and disarming peace education», says Leone again, «it is not enough to silence the weapons: we need to disarm the hearts, renouncing all violence and vulgarity. In this way, a disarming and disarmed education creates equality and growth for all, recognizing the equal dignity of every boy and girl, without ever dividing young people between a privileged few who have access to very expensive schools and many who do not have access to education”.
On the occasion of the Jubilee of the educational world, a dossier prepared by Antonello Maruotti, professor of Statistics at Lumsa University, was published and presented during the event “Educational constellations – A pact with the future” which took place on Thursday at the auditorium in via della Conciliazione with the cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonçaprefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education. It emerged that the educational presence of the Catholic Church in the world is active with a multiplicity of subjects: 219,000 schools and 1,760 Catholic universities and faculties. Hundreds of millions of people are involved in educating communities: students, teachers, parents and those who accompany young people in their life plans.
