YOUNG PEOPLE, DARE TO DREAM - en-fr-es

 

Young people are very different from those of yesterday, because of the rapid social changes of recent decades.

Adults have the responsibility 

not to deprive them 

of the dimension of generativity,

 without which there is no future.

by Luciano Manicardi

 

While speaking of young people as those who "in themselves represent hope," Pope Francis pointed to the responsibility of adults toward them: "We cannot disappoint them... let us care for the younger generations" (Spes non confundit, 12). The hope of young people is also the responsibility of adults. And what adults must first become aware of, and know, is what Michel Serres, speaking precisely of young people, called the "birth of a new humanity."

 Today's young people, compared to their parents, have different life expectancies, different families, different suffering, different education—now monopolized by the media—different living spaces thanks to "omniconnectivity," different languages, different ways of thinking and relating to reality, different temporalities, different relationships with work, different bonds due to the precariousness of belonging (national, political, religious, gender). The primary responsibility of adults is to listen, to know, and to understand.

 Only now are we beginning to have some understanding of the effects that daily familiarity—practically from the cradle—with smartphones can have on children and adolescents. Jonathan Haidt, studying Generation Z (those born after 1995), noted the rise in anxiety, anguish, depression, self-harm, and suicide. Growing up immersed in the so-called virtual world certainly doesn't help children cope with the real world and severely impacts their social and neurological development. In his book, The Anxious Generation, after noting that a childhood centered on play has shifted to one centered on the phone, the author argues that overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world are at the root of this generation's "anxiety."

 But, above all, adults are responsible for instilling trust and making room for young people, not for comparing and judging. Only by instilling trust can hope be created. Social and cultural responsibility today is to recover the dimension of generativity, without which young people are robbed of their future: if the world of work, the economy, and politics become focused on the present, investing and focusing on only short- and very short-term goals, young generations suffer the consequences. Without trust in the future, young people are robbed of hope. The deficit in generativity is connected to the disappearance of initiation in Western societies. Initiations are ritualized passages of human existence that teach the initiate the value of living, instilling the ancient principle of "die and become."

 Unfortunately, in the West, institutions dedicated to accompanying the human growth of young people are lacking (or are in serious crisis). There is a need for emotional education that provides young people with the tools to recognize, name, and manage their emotions. Otherwise, it will increasingly happen that unrecognized emotions of anger become dysregulated into aggression, leading to violence; or that unrecognized emotions of sadness become dysregulated into depression. Likewise, training in thinking, solitude, silence, the work of self-knowledge, and the cultivation of interiority would be essential.

 And what is the responsibility of the young person? It is essential for a young person to learn to guard against the demon of easiness. Today, we encounter an abundant supply of comfort goods (enormously increased thanks to digital technology) that provide instant gratification, but then produce habituation, dependence, and, in the long run, boredom, not joy. Furthermore, they accustom us to a temporality of the all-at-once, contrary to the patient work—including waiting, corrections, and revisions along the way—typical of the work in progress that is building deep relationships. Relationships that constitute both the meaning and the happiness of a life.

 Brother Roger of Taizé wrote: "Only the humble gift of oneself makes us happy." So-called stimulating goods require toil, effort, and commitment and are less appealing, but only by embracing the dimension of toil and effort can we build a robust self and serious relationships. Stimulating goods are cultural and relational goods, pertaining to the social sphere (for example, volunteering), sports, and the spiritual sphere. But to commit effort and commitment, a young person must nurture a passion, because only this allows them to gather their energies and put them to work pursuing their goals. Any advice for young people?

Cultivate creativity and imagination. And be brave: dare yourself.

JEUNES, OSEZ RÊVER

 Les jeunes d'aujourd'hui sont très différents de ceux d'hier, en raison des rapides changements sociaux des dernières décennies.

Les adultes ont la responsabilité de ne pas les priver de cette dimension de générativité, sans laquelle il n'y a pas d'avenir.

 -Luciano Manicardi

 Parlant des jeunes comme de ceux qui « représentent en eux-mêmes l'espérance », le pape François a souligné la responsabilité des adultes à leur égard : « Nous ne pouvons pas les décevoir… prenons soin des jeunes générations » (Spes non confindit, 12). L'espérance des jeunes est aussi la responsabilité des adultes. Et ce que les adultes doivent d'abord prendre conscience, et savoir, c'est ce que Michel Serres, parlant précisément des jeunes, appelait la « naissance d'une nouvelle humanité ».

 Les jeunes d'aujourd'hui, comparés à leurs parents, ont une espérance de vie différente, des familles différentes, des souffrances différentes, une éducation différente – désormais monopolisée par les médias –, des espaces de vie différents grâce à l'« omniconnectivité », des langues différentes, des modes de pensée et de rapport à la réalité différents, des temporalités différentes, des rapports au travail différents, des liens différents dus à la précarité des appartenances (nationales, politiques, religieuses, de genre). La responsabilité première des adultes est d'écouter, de savoir et de comprendre.

 Ce n'est que maintenant que nous commençons à comprendre les effets que la familiarité quotidienne – pratiquement dès le berceau – avec les smartphones peut avoir sur les enfants et les adolescents. Jonathan Haidt, étudiant la génération Z (nés après 1995), a constaté une augmentation de l'anxiété, de l'angoisse, de la dépression, de l'automutilation et du suicide. Grandir immergé dans le monde dit virtuel n'aide certainement pas les enfants à faire face au monde réel et a de graves répercussions sur leur développement social et neurologique. Dans son livre, La Génération Anxieuse, après avoir constaté qu'une enfance centrée sur le jeu a basculé vers une enfance centrée sur le téléphone, l'auteur soutient que la surprotection dans le monde réel et la sous-protection dans le monde virtuel sont à l'origine de « l'anxiété » de cette génération.

Mais, par-dessus tout, les adultes ont la responsabilité d'instaurer la confiance et de laisser une place aux jeunes, et non de comparer et de juger. Seule l'instauration de la confiance permet de créer de l'espoir. La responsabilité sociale et culturelle actuelle consiste à retrouver la dimension de générativité, sans laquelle les jeunes sont privés de leur avenir : si le monde du travail, l'économie et la politique se focalisent sur le présent, investissant et se concentrant uniquement sur des objectifs à court et très court terme, les jeunes générations en subissent les conséquences. Sans confiance en l'avenir, les jeunes sont privés d'espoir. Ce déficit de générativité est lié à la disparition de l'initiation dans les sociétés occidentales. Les initiations sont des passages ritualisés de l'existence humaine qui enseignent à l'initié la valeur de la vie, inculquant le principe ancestral du « mourir et devenir ».

 Malheureusement, en Occident, les institutions dédiées à l'accompagnement du développement humain des jeunes font défaut (ou sont en grave crise). Une éducation émotionnelle est nécessaire pour leur donner les outils nécessaires pour reconnaître, nommer et gérer leurs émotions. Sinon, les émotions de colère non reconnues se dérègleront de plus en plus en agressivité, menant à la violence ; ou les émotions de tristesse non reconnues en dépression. De même, l'apprentissage de la réflexion, de la solitude, du silence, le travail de connaissance de soi et le développement de l'intériorité seraient essentiels.

 Et quelle est la responsabilité du jeune ? Il est essentiel qu'il apprenne à se prémunir contre le démon de la facilité. Aujourd'hui, nous sommes confrontés à une offre abondante de biens de confort (démultipliée grâce aux technologies numériques) qui procurent une gratification immédiate, mais engendrent ensuite accoutumance, dépendance et, à long terme, ennui, et non joie. De plus, ils nous habituent à une temporalité du tout-en-un, contrairement au travail patient – incluant l'attente, les corrections et les révisions en cours de route – typique du travail en cours qui construit des relations profondes. Des relations qui constituent à la fois le sens et le bonheur d'une vie.

 Frère Roger de Taizé a écrit : « Seul l'humble don de soi-même nous rend heureux. » Les biens dits stimulants exigent du travail, des efforts et de l'engagement et sont moins attrayants, mais ce n'est qu'en embrassant la dimension du travail et de l'effort que nous pouvons construire une personne solide et des relations sérieuses. Les biens stimulants sont les biens culturels et relationnels, relevant de la sphère sociale (par exemple, le bénévolat), du sport et de la sphère spirituelle. Mais pour s'engager, un jeune doit nourrir une passion, car seule cela lui permet de rassembler ses énergies et de les mettre au service de ses objectifs. Un conseil pour les jeunes ?

 Cultivez la créativité et l'imagination. Et soyez courageux : osez-vous.

JÓVENES, ATRÉVANSE A SOÑAR

 Los jóvenes de hoy son muy diferentes a los de ayer, debido a los rápidos cambios sociales de las últimas décadas.

Los adultos tienen la responsabilidad de no privarlos de la dimensión de la generatividad, sin la cual no hay futuro.

- Luciano Manicardi

 Al referirse a los jóvenes como aquellos que "representan en sí mismos la esperanza", el Papa Francisco señaló la responsabilidad de los adultos hacia ellos: "No podemos decepcionarlos... cuidemos de las nuevas generaciones" (Spes non confundit, 12). La esperanza de los jóvenes es también responsabilidad de los adultos. Y lo que los adultos deben primero comprender y comprender es lo que Michel Serres, hablando precisamente de los jóvenes, llamó el "nacimiento de una nueva humanidad".

 Los jóvenes de hoy, en comparación con sus padres, tienen diferentes expectativas de vida, familias, sufrimientos, educación —ahora monopolizada por los medios—, espacios vitales diferentes gracias a la omniconectividad, idiomas diferentes, formas de pensar y relacionarse con la realidad diferentes, temporalidades diferentes, relaciones laborales diferentes, vínculos diferentes debido a la precariedad de la pertenencia (nacional, política, religiosa, de género). La principal responsabilidad de los adultos es escuchar, saber y comprender.

 Solo ahora empezamos a comprender los efectos que la familiaridad diaria —prácticamente desde la cuna— con los teléfonos inteligentes puede tener en niños y adolescentes. Jonathan Haidt, al estudiar a la Generación Z (nacidos después de 1995), observó el aumento de la ansiedad, la angustia, la depresión, las autolesiones y el suicidio. Crecer inmersos en el llamado mundo virtual ciertamente no ayuda a los niños a lidiar con el mundo real y afecta gravemente su desarrollo social y neurológico. En su libro, La Generación Ansiosa, tras señalar que una infancia centrada en el juego ha pasado a una centrada en el teléfono, el autor argumenta que la sobreprotección en el mundo real y la desprotección en el mundo virtual son la raíz de la "ansiedad" de esta generación.

 Pero, sobre todo, los adultos son responsables de infundir confianza y dar cabida a los jóvenes, no de compararlos ni juzgarlos. Solo infundiendo confianza se puede crear esperanza. La responsabilidad social y cultural actual es recuperar la dimensión de la generatividad, sin la cual los jóvenes se ven privados de su futuro: si el mundo laboral, la economía y la política se centran en el presente, invirtiendo y centrándose únicamente en objetivos a corto y muy corto plazo, las jóvenes generaciones sufren las consecuencias. Sin confianza en el futuro, los jóvenes se ven privados de la esperanza. El déficit de generatividad está relacionado con la desaparición de la iniciación en las sociedades occidentales. Las iniciaciones son pasajes ritualizados de la existencia humana que enseñan al iniciado el valor de la vida, inculcando el antiguo principio de "morir y convertirse".

 Lamentablemente, en Occidente, las instituciones dedicadas a acompañar el crecimiento humano de los jóvenes son escasas (o se encuentran en grave crisis). Se necesita una educación emocional que proporcione a los jóvenes las herramientas para reconocer, identificar y gestionar sus emociones. De lo contrario, ocurrirá cada vez más que las emociones de ira no reconocidas se descontrolen y se transformen en agresión, lo que conduce a la violencia; o que las emociones de tristeza no reconocidas se descontrolen y se transformen en depresión. Asimismo, sería esencial la formación en la reflexión, la soledad, el silencio, el trabajo de autoconocimiento y el cultivo de la interioridad.

 ¿Y cuál es la responsabilidad del joven? Es esencial que aprenda a protegerse del demonio de la comodidad. Hoy en día, nos encontramos con una abundante oferta de bienes de confort (enormemente incrementada gracias a la tecnología digital) que proporcionan gratificación instantánea, pero luego producen habituación, dependencia y, a la larga, aburrimiento, no alegría. Además, nos acostumbran a una temporalidad de todo a la vez, contraria al trabajo paciente —que incluye esperas, correcciones y revisiones a lo largo del camino— típico del trabajo en progreso que construye relaciones profundas. Relaciones que constituyen tanto el sentido como la felicidad de una vida.

 El hermano Roger de Taizé escribió: «Solo el humilde don de uno mismo nos hace felices». Los llamados bienes estimulantes requieren trabajo, esfuerzo y compromiso, y son menos atractivos, pero solo abrazando la dimensión del trabajo y el esfuerzo podemos construir una identidad sólida y relaciones serias. Los bienes estimulantes son bienes culturales y relacionales, pertenecientes al ámbito social (por ejemplo, el voluntariado), el deporte y el ámbito espiritual. Pero para comprometerse y esforzarse, un joven debe cultivar una pasión, porque solo esto le permite reunir sus energías y ponerlas a trabajar para alcanzar sus metas. ¿Algún consejo para los jóvenes?

 Cultiven la creatividad y la imaginación. Y sean valientes: atrévanse.

DO NOT BE SILENT !

 

“The prophetic legacy

 of Pope Francis:

 because 

peace is not a utopia”

- by Franco Vaccari

Do not be silent. Do not let it remain only a theme for Sunday homilies.

It is too late to be prudent and too early to be resigned...

The world's interest in who will be Pope Francis' successor is, ultimately, a good sign.

The silent prayers of the cloistered communities mix with the friendly bets in the bar, the curious murmuring of the people of God, the good expectations of the people of Rome and beyond.

But alongside this authentic spirit, there is also the chatter, the pressure, the coded messages intended for "those who must understand", the lobbies and worldly interests.

And so, the heart of the pontificate risks - but will not happen - being dismissed lightly, trivialized or reduced to slogans. Especially with regard to the commitment to peace.

We hear people say: “Francis had a weakness for peace” or: “What did you want him to say?

He simply acted like a Pope”. Statements that seem harmless, but which in reality defuse the revolutionary scope of a ministry.

No, the Pope did not have “a thing” for peace.

The Pope – every Pope, and therefore also Francis – embodies a word that comes from the Gospel, he does so as a man and as the leader of a human-divine community.

This is not a personal opinion or a pastoral idea that is a little too insistent: peace is the very heart of the Gospel.

It is a living memory of the history of the Church.

Pope Francis simply picked up a torch that others before him kept alight.

Saint John XXIII wrote it in Pacem in terris, addressing “all men of good will”. Saint Paul VI shouted at the UN: “Never again war!”.

Saint John Paul II walked through the rubble with the cross in his hand, and Benedict XVI recalled that there is no peace without truth and justice, starting with the Church.

Francis removed the exclamation point and put his feet in the mud: Ukraine, the Holy Land, Sudan, the Mediterranean.

And now he looks at us – yes, he looks at us – and asks us only one thing: do not shelve peace.

Do not be silent. Do not let it remain only a theme for Sunday homilies.

It is too late to be prudent and too early to be resigned.

On the one hand, there are those who dismiss this insistence as an ecclesial “obsession,” because “there is so much else to do.”

On the other, those who nullify it by saying, precisely: “Francis did nothing other than be Pope, he has no power, he is not a head of state, easy!”.

 

Being Pope: in certain misleading meanings it could seem like a job, so much so that even people with new CVs considered suitable are applying.

Two narratives that normalize prophecy and degrade it to utopia, while championing a “healthy realism” whose failure is now evident.

We live in a world that deals with peace only in function of war: when it is about to break out (to arm itself), when it has broken out (as a sterile invocation), when it is over (to forget it).

What would you do? And then he cynically asks us: “And you, what would you do?”.

The answer is disarming: we would do – or rather, we try to do – what that “obsession” of Pope Francis has repeated every day, and before him, those “obsessions” of his predecessors.

Relegating the words and gestures of the Popes on peace to a spiritual level, as a gentle truism, empties the disruptive force of the Gospel, reducing it to a civil religion. But the Gospel is something else: it is the soul of the human, in every aspect – civil, economic, political – and asks each person to account for being incarnated with coherence in their actions.

And this Gospel, precisely because it is alive, subverts.

Both inside and outside the Church. Jesus himself broke the patterns of “inside” and “outside”, eating with sinners, speaking with the Samaritans, healing on the Sabbath, recognizing “unauthorized” miracles.

But, despite everything, he did not give up on the apostles: he wanted them with him, as long as their power was service, not domination.

Messianic peace begins there: from the way in which relationships are lived within the Church, and then spread throughout the world.

And he questions everyone – from the youngest to the top of the institutions – with the simplest and most radical question: who are you on?

With Herod, with Pilate, with Barabbas? Or with Christ?

www.avvenire.it

 

MAY DAY 2025 - GOOD WORK

  According to Pope Francis

To "recover" a social idea, embedded 

in the Social Doctrine of the Church, 

we like to propose the "manifesto" 

of good work and good business,

 launched by the Argentine pontiff

 

by Mario Bozzi Paths

May 1st, Labor Day, this year cannot fail to be marked by the recent death of Pope Francis, a “Peronist” Pontiff, he said, and therefore populist and sensitive to labor issues. It is to “recover” a social idea, rooted in the Social Doctrine of the Church, very different from the genericism of certain journalistic “reconstructions” read in recent days, that we like to re-propose the “manifesto” of good work and good business, launched by Pope Francis, during his pastoral visit to Genoa, on May 27, 2017, on the occasion of the meeting with the workers of Ilva. It is a manifesto that we feel we should share for its ethical-social value and that we propose, in its essentiality, for its “programmatic” strength.

  Pope Francis: 

*The dignity of work

It is important to recognize the virtues of workers. Their need is the need to do the job well because the job must be done well. Sometimes it is thought that a worker works well only because he is paid: this is a serious disregard for workers and work because it denies the dignity of work that begins precisely in working well for dignity, for honor.

The good entrepreneur

The true entrepreneur knows his workers because he works alongside them, he works with them. Let's not forget that the entrepreneur must first of all be a worker! If he does not have this experience of the dignity of work he will not be a good entrepreneur. He shares the workers' efforts and shares the joys of work, of solving problems together, of creating something together.

He who sells his people sells his own dignity

No good entrepreneur likes to fire his people! Who thinks he can solve the problem of his company by firing people is not a good entrepreneur, he is a merchant. Today he sells his people, tomorrow he sells his own dignity. An illness of the economy is the progressive transformation of entrepreneurs into speculators. The entrepreneur should not be confused with the speculator, they are two different types. The speculator is a figure similar to the one that Jesus in the Gospel calls a mercenary, to contrast him with the good shepherd. He sees the company and workers only as means to make profit, he uses the company and workers to make profit, he does not love them. Firing, closing, moving the company do not create any problem for him, because the speculator uses, exploits, eats people and means for his profit.

Against the faceless economy

When the economy is inhabited by good entrepreneurs, companies are friends of the people. When it passes into the hands of speculators, everything is ruined. It is a faceless, abstract economy. Behind the decisions of the speculator there are no people, and therefore you do not see the people to be fired and cut.

When the economy loses contact with the faces of real people it becomes faceless and therefore ruthless. We must fear speculators, not entrepreneurs.

Work is a friend of man and man is a friend of work.

Lack of work is much more than the loss of a source of income to live. Work is also this, but it is much more, by working we become more people, our humanity flourishes, the Social Doctrine of the Church has always seen work as participation in the creation that continues thanks to the hands, mind and heart of workers. On earth there are few greater joys than those experienced by working. Just as there are few greater pains than when work crushes, humiliates, kills. Work is a friend of man and man is a friend of work. Through work men and women are anointed with dignity.

Building the social pact

The entire social pact is built around work, when people don't work, work poorly or work little, democracy enters into crisis, the entire social pact enters into crisis. This is also the meaning of the first article of the Italian Constitution: Italy is a Republic founded on work. We can say that taking away people's jobs or exploiting people with unworthy or poorly paid work is unconstitutional, according to this article! If it were not founded on work, the Italian Republic would not be a democracy because the place of work has always been occupied by privileges, castes, and incomes.

The social goal to be achieved is not income for all, but work for all

We must look at technological transformations and not resign ourselves to the ideology that imagines a world where perhaps half or two thirds of workers will work, and the others will be supported by a social security check. It must be clear that the social objective to be achieved is not income for all, but work for all. Because without work for all there will be no dignity for all. The work of today and tomorrow will be different, perhaps very different, think of the industrial revolution. There will be a revolution, but it will have to be work, not pensions! Not pensioners, work! You retire at the right age, it is an act of justice but against the dignity of people to send them into retirement at 35-40 years old, with a state check.

 The excesses of competition

The values of work are changing very quickly and many of these values of big business and big finance are not in line with the human dimension and therefore with Christian humanism. The emphasis on competition, in addition to being an anthropological error, is also an economic error because it forgets that business is mutual cooperation. When you create a system that puts workers in competition with each other, maybe it can obtain some advantage in the short term but it ends up undermining that fabric that is the soul of every organization and so when a crisis arrives the company frays and implodes, because there is no longer any rope that holds it up. This competitive culture is a mistake, it is a vision that must be changed if we want the good of business, workers and the economy.

The excesses of meritocracy

Another value that is actually a disvalue is meritocracy, which is so much praised today and is very fascinating. Beyond the good faith of the many who invoke it, meritocracy is becoming an ethical legitimation of inequality. The new capitalism, through meritocracy, gives a moral guise to inequality, because it interprets people's talents not as a gift but as a merit, determining a system of cumulative advantages and disadvantages. Thus, if two children are born with different talents or social and economic opportunities, the economic world will interpret the different talents as merit, and will reward them differently. And so, when those two children retire, the inequality between them will have multiplied. A second consequence of the so-called "meritocracy" is the change in the culture of poverty. The poor are considered undeserving, and therefore guilty. And if poverty is the poor's fault, the rich are exempted from doing anything. This is the old logic of Job's friends who wanted to convince him that he was to blame for his misfortune, but this is not the logic of the Gospel and of life. Meritocracy in the Gospel is found in the figure of the elder brother of the prodigal son who despises his younger brother and thinks he must remain a failure. The father instead thinks that no son deserves the acorns of the pigs.

 The dignity of work

Those who lose their job and can't find another one feel they are losing their dignity. Like those who are forced to accept bad and wrong jobs. There are still bad and wrong jobs in illegal arms trafficking, pornography, gambling and in all those companies that do not respect workers and the environment, like those who are paid a lot because work takes up their whole life, without hours. Without work you can survive, but to live you need work and the choice is between surviving and living. A monthly state check that allows you to support your family does not solve the problem. The problem must be solved with work for everyone.

 Work and the Party

A paradox of our society is the presence of a quota of people who would like to work and cannot, or others who would like to work less, but cannot because they have been bought by companies. Work becomes a brother when next to it there is a party, free time. Without this, it becomes slave labor, even if overpaid. In families where there are unemployed people it is never truly Sunday, because there is no work on Monday. To celebrate holidays it is necessary to be able to celebrate work, they go together, one marks the time of the other. Consumption is an idol of our time, consumption is the center of our society and therefore pleasure. Today there are new temples open 24 hours, which promise salvation, points of pure consumption and pure pleasure. Work is toil, and sweat, when a hedonistic society sees and wants only consumption, it does not understand the value of toil and sweat, it does not understand work. All idolatries are experiences of pure consumption. Without rediscovering a culture that values toil and sweat, we will not find a new relationship with work and we will continue to dream of the consumption of pure pleasure."

 Work and consumption

Work is the center of every social pact, not a means to be able to consume. Between work and consumption there are many things, all important and beautiful: freedom, honor, dignity, rights for all. If we sell work to consumption, we will soon sell these sister words too.

Spirituality of work

Many of the most beautiful prayers of our parents and grandparents were prayers of work recited before, after and during work. Work is present every day in the Eucharist whose gifts are the fruit of the earth and the work of man. The fields, the sea, the factories, have always been altars from which beautiful and pure prayers have risen that God has welcomed and collected, recited but also said with the hands, the sweat, the fatigue of the work of those who did not know how to pray with their mouths. God has welcomed all these and continues to welcome them even today. For this reason I would like to end with a prayer: the come Holy Spirit: "Send us a ray of light, come father of the poor, of workers and of workers".

@barbadilloit

 

THE GOSPEL OF EDUCATION

The Pedagogical Testament 

of Pope Francis

for 

the school 

of the future

 

-         by Antonio Fundarò

 

There was a time – ours – when speaking of mercy seemed like a sign of weakness, naivety, almost a surrender in the face of the harshness of the world. At that time, a Pope came “from the end of the world” who, with a gentle but radical voice, overturned the paradigm. Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was not only the 266th successor of Peter, but a true master of humanity, who restored to the word “education” its ancient sacredness: educere, that is, “to bring out,” to generate life.

Born in Buenos Aires in 1936, a Jesuit by vocation, a priest by service, Francis embraced the pedagogy of the Gospel (an educational approach inspired by the message and figure of Jesus Christ) with the wisdom of the heart. In him, the rigor of intelligence and the sweetness of the gaze, the firmness of doctrine and the revolution of tenderness met. His strength was never in condemnation, but in embracing. He proposed to the world, and in particular to schools, a new educational grammar: less based on content and more founded on relationships, less centered on performance and more on care for the person.

His language was clear and direct, suitable for children and teachers, believers and non-believers. His letters to the world of school, his appeals to teachers, the words spoken during meetings with young people outlined a vision of education as a tool for social regeneration. Not to build armies of experts, but to form free, aware consciences, capable of "crying for those who suffer", as he himself loved to say.

In his educational thought, school has never been a neutral institution, but a laboratory of humanity. “Educating – he said – is an act of love, it is giving life”. And again: “You cannot educate without passion”.

His words do not belong only to the ecclesial sphere. They belong to all humanity. For this reason today, in the light of his teaching, it is necessary to collect his legacy in a living form, as a compass for every school community that wants to educate with the heart and the mind, with rigor and with empathy.

Pope Francis has indicated school as the place of possible change. And he has done so not only with his encyclicals and official documents, but also with his silences, his gestures, his choice of a style of sobriety and closeness. Today there is no pedagogy of dignity that cannot draw inspiration from his life. For this reason, his example asks us, with strength and gentleness together, to rethink school as a space in which no one is left behind, no one is humiliated, no one is forgotten.

The key words of his educational lexicon

Pope Francis has built an educational lexicon that, while drawing on the evangelical tradition, speaks forcefully to all schools in the world, including secular, multicultural, and plural schools. He has never proposed an encyclopedia of abstract concepts, but a vocabulary of the soul, based on simple, living, concrete words that can have an impact on daily school life: mercy , care , encounter , fraternity , periphery , listening , tenderness , dignity . Each term, in his homilies as in his gestures, becomes an educational pillar to be reread in a pedagogical key.

The word mercy , the heart of his pontificate, has never been, for Francis, synonymous with easy indulgence. Instead, it has been proposed as the foundation of every educational relationship: looking at the other, even the most difficult student, not through the lenses of prejudice or evaluation, but as the bearer of a mystery, a story, a possibility. Mercy means suspending judgment to open to understanding; it means accompanying without ever replacing, orienting without ever invading.

Care is the other key word, which recalls the very etymology of education as an act that nourishes and protects. Francis invites the school to become a community that takes care not only of skills, but of fragilities, affections, dreams. Educational care translates into personalized attention, empathetic listening, inclusive planning. It is the definitive overcoming of transmissive education, in favor of a generative teaching, which accompanies the integral development of the person.

Fraternity is the basis of a school that does not classify but embraces. In a time dominated by competition, Francis reminds us that we are all brothers. This has profound pedagogical consequences: the classroom is not an arena of judgment but a cooperative laboratory. Evaluation becomes a tool for growth, not for exclusion. Teaching methodologies that are based on cooperation, peer tutoring, and learning by doing find their ethical basis in fraternity.

And then there are the peripheries , which for Francis are not just geographical places, but existential conditions. Every self-respecting school must know how to look at its peripheries: the disadvantaged students, the repeaters, the newcomers, the kids who don't speak, those who disturb, those who are forgotten. Pope Francis teaches us that a just school is one that knows how to shift the center of gravity toward those who are furthest away, because that is where the truth of our educational task is played out.

Tenderness , finally, is the word that has most scandalized the supporters of a cold and hyper-rational school. But Francis had the courage to forcefully propose it again, defining it as “the strength of the strong”. Tenderness is not weakness, it is full awareness of the dignity of the other. Teaching with tenderness means looking at students not only as subjects to be trained, but as people to be loved. It is a pedagogy of the heart, which is not afraid of being human, which knows how to smile, console, wait.

Translating this lexicon into school practice is not only possible, but a duty. A teacher who acts according to this educational vocabulary does not only teach notions, but shows that school is a place where culture becomes flesh, becomes relationships, becomes hope. And this is, perhaps, the greatest legacy that Pope Francis leaves us: the invitation not to fear goodness, not to be afraid of beauty, never to give up humanity. Not even in school.

The “Global Educational Pact”: A Manifesto for 21st Century Education

In 2019, Pope Francis launches a challenge that is at once an invocation, a program and a prophecy: that of a Global Educational Pact . He does so with heartfelt and visionary words, inviting schools, universities, families, institutions and religions to a global educational alliance, capable of addressing the wounds of our time: loneliness, inequality, war, the ecological crisis and that of relationships. “We need,” he states, “the courage to generate a cultural change, to build a civilization of love together.” It is a pedagogical appeal, but also a civil one, because it considers education the only true way to regenerate the world.

The Pact is divided into seven educational commitments , which, translated into the language of school, can become guidelines for every school institution, regardless of religious or cultural orientation. The first is the centrality of the person , a pedagogical principle par excellence: every student is unique, unrepeatable, worthy. It means re-evaluating personalized education, promoting inclusive and flexible learning environments, investing in the emotional well-being of students.

The second is to listen to the voice of young people , the true beating heart of the school. Francis asks that children not only be recipients, but protagonists of education. This requires dialogical practices, participatory methodologies, open class councils, lively assemblies, and teaching that questions the real world.

The third is to promote the full participation of girls and women in education , as a driver of freedom, equality and social justice. This translates into the integration of gender issues in educational planning, non-stereotyped teaching practices and openness to an inclusive school leadership model.

The fourth is to educate to welcome and to meet , overcoming the barriers of indifference. A school that welcomes is a school that knows how to work on the culture of otherness, on intercultural education, on the value of coexistence. In the classrooms you can teach geography, history, law and at the same time grow empathy, hospitality, solidarity.

The fifth commitment is to train people willing to serve the community , promoting civic sense and active citizenship. Educating for the common good means giving space to volunteering, experience, and service learning projects. It means taking the school out of itself , to bring reality into the curriculum.

The sixth is to promote a culture of encounter and dialogue , against the logic of conflict and suspicion. Here the reference to mediation, nonviolence, and conflict management in and outside the classroom is very strong. School can become a place where one learns to discuss without hating, to confront one another without destroying one another.

Finally, the seventh commitment: to protect the common home , the environment as an educational responsibility. It is the invitation to decline Laudato si' in school practices, through integral ecology paths, environmental laboratories, educational gardens, green projects and, above all, through a sustainable lifestyle that is also embodied by the educational community.

The Global Educational Pact is not a spiritual utopia, but a concrete program, suitable for every school that wants to educate not only heads, but hearts. Francis asks to rebuild education as a space of alliance between generations, cultures, worlds, to build a new civilization. He does not propose recipes, but a method: get together, look each other in the eye, take care of the future.

Every class council, every manager, every teacher can find in this Pact a map to orient their mission. Because, as Pope Francis has repeatedly reminded us, educating is always an act of love. It is giving life .

Educating the heart: the pedagogy of tenderness

At a time when school is often invoked as a place of discipline, competence, performance, Pope Francis offers us a disconcerting, ancient and at the same time revolutionary word: tenderness . It is one of his most beloved terms, often accompanied by a gesture, an embrace, a look that descends from the pulpit and stops at the height of children, the sick, the excluded. “Tenderness is the strength of the strong,” he said. And it is precisely from this gentle strength that a true educational revolution can begin.

Educating with tenderness means building a relationship based not on hierarchical authority, but on trust. The teacher is no longer just the one who knows, but the one who accompanies. He is an adult who is not afraid to show himself vulnerable, who knows how to stand by the students in moments of crisis, who does not take refuge behind the rigidity of the grade, but knows how to recognize the value of effort, of growth, of silent transformation. He is the one who knows how to say: "Don't worry, let's try again together".

This pedagogy has its center in the educational relationship , understood as a place of unconditional welcome. There is no learning without a meaningful relationship. Contemporary pedagogy also reminds us of this, from the humanistic psychology of Carl Rogers to the inclusive teaching of UDA: only those who feel recognized, loved, supported, can truly learn. Francis, without using academic codes, gives us this truth with simplicity: "Educating is generating. And to generate, you have to love."

Another key element of this vision is the valorization of error. The school of tenderness does not punish, but accompanies. The error is not a fault, but a passage. An opportunity to get up, to try again, to learn in depth. This is where teaching methodologies that reject notionalism and welcome the process come in: cooperative learning , tinkering , laboratory activities, learning paths for skills, evaluation rubrics as tools for reflection and not condemnation.

The pedagogy of tenderness also promotes inclusion not as a normative obligation, but as a style of the soul. Every student, in this perspective, has the right to be seen, recognized, welcomed for what he or she is. Individualized Educational Plans, Special Educational Needs, and teaching differentiation strategies become instruments of justice, not just of law. For Francis, the right school is not the one that gives more to those who have more, but the one that bends over those in difficulty, like the Good Samaritan on the side of the road.

And then there is time. The school of tenderness is not in a hurry. It knows how to wait. It rejects the logic of deadlines at all costs, of programs to be completed, of rigid goals. It is a school that is more like a journey than a race. And in this journey, the teacher is a companion, not a judge.

In an era marked by performance anxiety, evaluative pressures and an often bellicose educational language (“test”, “compete”, “classify”), Pope Francis proposes a school that knows how to feel , be moved , welcome . It is not a question of renouncing authority or competence, but of rooting them in the relational and affective dimension. Because, as he once said: “An education without heart is not education”.

This vision deeply questions those who live school today. It asks us to be, before teachers, witnesses. Before transmitters of knowledge, builders of meaning. It asks us to believe that every student, even the most difficult, even the angriest, holds a spark within himself. And our task is to protect it from the wind, welcome it in our hands and help it become light.

Pope Francis and the Time of Listening

“Let us learn to listen. True dialogue begins with the silence of the heart.” This simple and profound phrase contains one of the greatest educational revolutions proposed by Pope Francis: the pedagogy of listening. In a world that screams, interrupts, and runs, the Pope reminds us that authentic education begins when we stop, remain silent, and lend an ear to the other. It is a gesture of humility, of respect, of love. And it is also, today more than ever, a pedagogical urgency.

In his reflections, Francis has repeatedly insisted on the value of active listening , not as a passive act, but as a transformative act. Truly listening means welcoming the other for what he or she is, without immediately wanting to correct, modify, or pigeonhole him or her. In school, this principle translates into an educational practice that puts the student, his or her needs, emotions, fears, and dreams at the center. It means recognizing that every word a student says, even when it is wrong, contains a fragment of truth.

The pedagogy of listening proposed by the Pontiff invites teachers and managers to recognize that every educational relationship has two protagonists. The teacher who knows how to listen is the one who has learned not to fill every void , not to fear silence , to leave space for the other's story . He is the one who knows how to pause the program to give voice to a pain, a request, a confidence. He is the educator who knows that before the explanation comes the relationship, before the evaluation comes understanding.

In methodological terms, this vision is embodied in all those practices that favor the students' speech: circle time, teaching by questions, debates, narrative interviews, cognitive autobiographies, peer tutoring, empathic listening in school-family discussions. It is also embodied in a dialogic evaluation, where the vote does not close, but opens a conversation. In a teaching staff capable of questioning together, not just deliberating. In a presidency that knows how to open the door rather than imposing itself with circulars.

Listening, for Pope Francis, is also an instrument of relational justice . Those who are not listened to are excluded. And those who are excluded end up getting lost. In this, the pedagogy of listening is deeply linked to the prevention of school dropout: a boy who feels listened to is a boy who exists, who finds space, who does not feel useless. And therefore he stays. He stays in school, and in life.

But listening also means decentralizing oneself, renouncing omniscience, questioning oneself. It is the highest and most demanding point of education. The Pope did it with his pastoral choices, with his openness to young people, to cultures, to differences. He showed that listening is a spiritual act even before it is a communicative one. It is a way of saying: “You are important. I need you to understand the world”. And this, in a school that often feels alone and unheard, is a powerful message.

A school that knows how to listen is a school that generates freedom. That does not impose identities, but brings them out. That does not preach, but dialogues. That does not judge, but accompanies. It is the school we need to build a more just, more human, more profound society. Because, as Francis teaches us, no one educates alone. No one is saved alone. No one grows without being listened to .

An education in peace and beauty

Pope Francis has always spoken of peace not as an abstract concept or ideal to proclaim, but as a daily path to build. “Peace is made, not preached,” he said. And in this statement resounds all the concreteness of his educational approach. For him, school is one of the privileged places where one can – and must – build a culture of peace, not through great proclamations, but through simple gestures, respectful relationships, care for others.

Educating for peace, in the thought of the Pontiff, means first of all teaching how to inhabit conflict without violence. It means helping children and young people to recognize the other not as a threat but as a resource. It means developing a fundamental skill: coexistence in difference . From here comes an invitation to the school to become a laboratory of dialogue, a gym of empathy, a place to practice kind words. The practices of school mediation, conflict management, relational problem solving, cooperative learning , become concrete tools to give shape to this pacifying education.

But alongside peace, Francis asks us to educate in beauty . And his is not an aesthetic or superficial beauty, but a beauty that saves, that heals, that restores dignity. “Beauty is not an optional,” he says, “it is a right, especially for the poor.” And so the school is called not only to teach art, music, poetry, but to live poetically , to create beautiful spaces, harmonious times, environments that speak of respect and care. An orderly classroom, a shared mural, a poem read at the beginning of the day, a melody that accompanies a moment of reflection: these are all signs of a pedagogy of beauty that makes the school a place where one wants to stay.

Laudato si' , Francis ' powerful and revolutionary encyclical, offers schools an entire framework for building civic, environmental and cultural education paths. Here beauty is intertwined with responsibility. "Care for our common home" becomes an interdisciplinary theme that unites science, geography, art, religion and technology. Educating about the beauty of creation also means educating about sobriety, balance and respect for what surrounds us.

Educating for peace and beauty also means rediscovering the value of silence , contemplation, slowing down. It means teaching that not everything is measured in performance, that not everything is evaluated with a number. Francis reminds us that there is a time to reflect, to observe, to give thanks. And school can also offer this: a space to breathe, where the soul is not suffocated.

This educational vision is also a political act, in the highest sense of the term: to build citizens who are artisans of peace and guardians of beauty. Citizens who know how to be indignant in the face of injustice, but also moved by a sunset, a painting, a word said with love.

Pope Francis spoke to the school with the language of hope, indicating peace and beauty as the two wings on which the education of the future can fly. Not an indifferent and gray school, but a bright and welcoming school. Because, as he writes in Fratelli Tutti , “ education is the seed of peace, and beauty is its sister” .

For a more human school: synthesis and perspectives

If we wanted to enclose the educational thought of Pope Francis in a single image, we could think of an outstretched hand. Not a hand that imposes, nor that punishes, but a hand that lifts, that accompanies, that consoles, that encourages. His vision of school is the vision of a living, human, relational place, where everyone finds space to be themselves and to become better together with others.

Pope Francis has given us not a pedagogical treatise, but an educational testament made of words, gestures, tears, journeys, meetings, encyclicals and silences. A vision of the world and of the school that places the person in his or her entirety at the center, that invites us to educate with the heart and with the intelligence, that asks us to build educational communities founded on solidarity, listening, empathy.

This heritage cannot remain confined to the ecclesial world. It is the heritage of humanity, and as such it also belongs to the public, secular, democratic school. It is a gift for every teacher, for every manager, for every educator who wants to contribute to forming aware and happy citizens. Because educating, in the highest and Franciscan sense, means sowing the future .

In light of the values and intuitions of the Holy Pontiff, we can today propose an educational decalogue that, despite its simplicity, becomes a compass for every school community:

1.     Put the person at the center , before the program and the performance.

2.     Listen with empathy , before speaking, evaluating, correcting.

3.     Embrace fragility as part of the educational process.

4.     Build relationships , because without relationships there is no learning.

5.     It teaches peace , in words, in gestures, in conflict management.

6.     Cultivate beauty , in every detail: environments, language, materials, school rituals.

7.     Take care of our common home by making education green and responsible.

8.     It values slowness , against the haste that burns the soul and the mind.

9.     Favor cooperation , over any form of sterile competition.

10. Show hope , every day, in every classroom, even when it's difficult.

This is not a simple methodological proposal: it is an anthropological choice. Pope Francis asks us to put humanity at the center , to educate with love, with justice, with tenderness. To not fear goodness, kindness, patience. To not forget that every student is a miracle in progress. And that every teacher can be a light on their path.

In an era marked by disintegration, indifference, and a throwaway culture, Pope Francis leaves us a profoundly countercurrent educational vision. A school that becomes a womb and not a judgment, that forms consciences and not just skills, that restores meaning and not just knowledge.

Anyone who enters the classroom, with a register under their arm and a heart ready to meet, can today decide to embrace this style. Because – as he said “ educating is always an act of love. It is giving life. It is lighting a future that surpasses us.

It is sowing what others will reap.

 

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