Vatican News continues with its inside look at the
history, objectives and “mission budgets” of the various Vatican offices
assisting the Pope in his pastoral ministry.
Featured here is the Congregation
for Catholic Education with an interview with its Prefect, Cardinal Giuseppe
Versaldi.
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By Gabriella Ceraso – Vatican City
Tens of millions of children in the world are
experiencing an “educational catastrophe”. They are excluded from the
scholastic community. The Global Compact on Education proposed by the Pope
seeks to contribute to heal this profound wound. About thirty people are
working toward this behind the scenes, following, directing, supervising and
promoting scholastic and academic formation in Catholic institutions throughout
the world. Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi tells us about the
mission of the Congregation for Catholic Education.
Education is one of the central themes of Pope
Francis’ pontificate. In October 2020, he relaunched the proposal of a Global
Compact directed to all the educational entities in society responsible for the
future of the younger generations. In what way has the Dicastery been involved
in sustaining and implementing the campaign the Pope inspired?
From the beginning of his pontificate, following his
previous pastoral style, Pope Francis has insisted on the necessity of
investing everyone’s talents, above all those of the younger generations, to
foster a new universal solidarity and a more welcoming society. With the launch
of the Global Compact on Education, he renewed the invitation to forge an
alliance toward a global convergence of education that knows how to unite every
people, with all their components, so as to discover solutions to the problems
created due to the ongoing epochal transformation, to initiate processes of
transformation without fear and to look to the future with hope. This
invitation was directed to everyone: teachers, students, parents, society;
every field and discipline; the various intellectual, scientific, artistic,
athletic, political, economic, entrepreneurial expressions, in support of young
people.
Entrusted with the task of accompanying the
implementation of this project, the Congregation for Catholic Education, in
addition to promoting a series of conventions and events to develop the various
components of the educational pact (undertaken immediately after the Holy
Father’s first message of 12 September 2019), began to follow and gather the
most significant experiences in place in Catholic schools and universities and
in many other educational institutions in many countries throughout the world.
Given the proliferation of initiatives and perspectives which will be
constantly evolving in the next years, a Committee was created with the
Pontifical Foundation Gravissimum educationis, LUMSA University
(Rome) and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Milan). This allowed
the preparation of a vademecum for educators and a volume
containing guidelines for universities. While the former, the objectives of the
Global Compact indicated by the Pope are developed, the guidelines expand on
five thematic areas in which the Compact can be applied to develop academic,
scientific and cultural initiatives: human dignity and rights; fraternity and
cooperation; technology and integral ecology; peace and citizenship; culture
and religion.
Keeping in mind that the proposal of an educational
compact aims at finding a global convergence in a “common home” for the Earth’s
inhabitants, and an alliance that generates peace, justice, acceptance between
all peoples and dialogue among religions, the Dicastery’s work is carried out
in fruitful and productive collaboration with other entities in the Holy See.
What types of formative institutions fall under the
Congregation’s competence and what tasks are assigned to it at the level of
organizating, directing and promoting their activity?
The Congregation has the task of deepening, developing
and promoting the fundamental principles of Catholic education, as proposed by
the Magisterium of the Church, both regarding the People of God, as well as
society at large. In this sense, it is committed to ensuring that the faithful
can fulfill their obligations in this area, and that society at large might
also recognize and protect their rights. In that context, constructive dialogue
undertaken with national institutions and international organisms is
significant.
In particular, the Congregation establishes guidelines
for Catholic schools, many of which were founded by and are managed by
religious Congregations. It assists Diocesan Bishops in their role of
supervision over the quality of service these schools provide, the training of
formators, religious education and the pastoral care of students. In addition
to schools, the Dicastery follows Catholic universities and assists the Bishops
in the formulation of norms for the application of the Constitution Ex
corde Ecclesiae so that they might accompany these academic
institutions in developing the various disciplines while taking into account
Christian inspiration, and in promoting various forms of pastoral care at the
university level.
Another specific task entrusted to the Congregation
concerns Universities and Institutes of ecclesiastical studies. Implementing
the Apostolic Constitution Veritatis Gaudium (approved by Pope
Francis on 8 December 2017), the Dicastery ratifies the statutes of these types
of institutions, maintains a high level of direction regarding them to ensure
the quality of the doctrinal teaching offered and to safeguard the integrity of
the Catholic Faith. There are approximately 217 thousand Catholic schools in
the world, with over 60 million students. Catholic Universities number 1,360;
there are 487 Ecclesiastical Universities and Faculties, including Institutes
affiliated or connected with them. Students attending these institutions for
higher education number about 11 million.
How many people are on staff at the Dicastery and how
is their work organized? What are the areas of the Dicastery’s mission that
absorb the majority of its budget?
Twenty-nine people who come from twelve different
countries work in the Dicastery. They are distributed between the Office for
Schools, Office for Universities, the Department for International Organisms
and various other services: treasurer, protocol, archives, library, IT,
porters. The largest expense is the payroll, then IT services which have
recently become absolutely essential so as to accompany the work of the
educational institutions throughout the world. We have publishing expenses (the
Dicastery’s journal and various documents), as well as the consultation costs
stemming from work entrusted to a group of consultants. Part of our budget goes
toward the organization of particular events – conventions, study seminars or
congresses organized for a variety of circumstances – which are subsidized in
part by third parties. For the past six years, the Congregation has housed the
Papal Foundation Gravissimum educationis, established by Pope
Francis to support the area of research and new projects in the field of
education. There are four people who work there.
The Holy See ensures a “diplomatic” presence in the
cultural and academic fields at the international level through the Dicastery
and the agreements and initiatives it has adhered to at various levels. What
principles inspire this aspect and what are the most significant results?
Besides collaborating with numerous international scholastics,
university, parent and alumni associations, the Dicastery, in close
collaboration with the Secretariat of State, is in contact with international
organizations such as UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the European Union.
Constant relations are maintained with these organizations through the Holy
See’s Observers from whom the Congregation receives information regarding the
strategies developed, topics of study and events being promoted. On some
particular occasions, in addition to the internal work of the officials who
follow these activities, we choose qualified experts to send to meetings who
represent the Church’s position and who learn about the orientations that might
have an obvious impact on the work of Catholic educational institutions as they
are developed.
After adhering to the Bologna Process, the AVEPRO Agency was established in 2007. What role does it
fulfill in promoting a culture of quality within academic institutions? What
are the tasks of the International Center
for Recognition, instead?
In September 2003, in one of the periodic meetings of
the Ministers of Universities of the countries already participating in the
Bologna Process, the Holy See also gave its adhesion and was welcomed into this
important collaborative process launched initially at the European level and
now present in other continents. Its goal is to facilitate the international
movement of teachers and students of higher learning. A series of criteria has
been adopted to facilitate the recognition of studies among the countries who
have adhered to the Process. In terms of ecclesiastical institutions, it
represented an important step that, under the Dicastery’s leadership, led them
to re-evaluate various aspects of academic life, especially the quality of
education.
One of the objectives inherent to the Bologna Process
has been the commitment to create an agency monitoring the quality of education
in every member country. In the Holy See as well, Pope Benedict XVI created
such an Agency, called AVEPRO (Agency of the Holy See for the Evaluation and
the Promotion of Quality in Ecclesiastical Universities and Faculties), to
emphasize not only its task of evaluation, but primarily that of helping to
promote the development and the quality of ecclesiastic studies. As has
happened in all other countries, so also in every institution of higher
studies, the Church has undertaken the creation of an internal auditing system
that would monitor the consistency and effectiveness of academic life. Every
five years, AVEPRO, an organism independent of the Dicastery, undertakes an
external evaluation of every institution, and produces a final report.
As far as the International Center for Recognition is
concerned, all the countries who adhere to one of the UNESCO Conventions in
this area are required to have a particular office to promote recognition and
awareness of the national educational systems. This includes a database of all
the educational institutions of higher learning that have been recognized.
Having signed four regional Conventions, and having committed itself to promote
the recently adopted UNESCO’s Global Convention, the Holy See created the
International Center for Recognition (ICR) within the Congregation for Catholic
Education. Its competence embraces the world, and it has the right to make
binding decisions and to manage the database of all the educational
institutions of higher education founded or approved by the Holy See. This
database is accessible online.
The pandemic has profoundly affected the learning
experience on a global level, penalizing networks of personal relationships and
impoverishing resources and sources of support that educational institutions
relied on. How will this situation influence the formation of the young
generation? What has the Congregation suggested and prioritized in this area?
The pandemic accelerated and amplified many of the
emergencies that were already present and revealed many others. This includes
the field of education. We are facing a sort of “educational catastrophe” due
to the fact that about ten million children were forced to leave school. This
is in addition to the 250 million school-age children who are excluded from any
educational activity. Computer-based education was rapidly put in place to
respond to this emergency. But the marked disparity of access to technology,
together with other deficiencies, made the educational divide more obvious
everywhere.
The Congregation suggests two things regarding this
situation, which will not be resolved quickly: on the one hand, the emergency
needs to be dealt with as soon as possible with technological tools and teacher
updating so the effort can be made in the direction of educational
accompaniment to heal the new marginalities that have been created. On the
other hand, efforts need to be made to produce a new cultural model to change
the current model of development and to adopt pedagogical paradigms capable of
safeguarding the dignity of the human person, of promoting adequate
socialization processes within the perspective of universal fraternity, and to
promote a transdisciplinary approach to knowledge to form the younger
generations as protagonists of the common good.
