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Star
in the constellation
The speech of Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça
at the UMEC-WUCT Conference in Oradea
(Romania)
"Education as a mission:
collaboration and exchange of experiences
between member
countries "
It is with great
joy that I greet all the participants in this International Meeting of the
World Union of Catholic Teachers, dedicated to the theme "Education as
Mission: Collaboration and Exchange of Experiences among Member Countries ."
I thank you for your commitment and your presence, which testifies to the
vitality of an educational network spread throughout the world. This meeting is
not only an opportunity for professional exchange: it is an act of faith in the
transformative power of education.
Your coming
together from diverse countries and cultures has profound significance. It is
not simply a matter of getting to know one another better or exchanging best
practices—valuable and necessary as that is. Rather, it is a matter of rediscovering
together the common root of our educational mission : that vocation that
calls us to place the human person at the center of all our efforts, to
safeguard their dignity, to cultivate their thoughts and hearts, to prepare the
ground so that every young life can flourish in the fullness of its humanity.
The
constellation of educators
I would like to
offer you an image that seems particularly apt to describe the meaning of this
meeting and, more generally, the very nature of the World Union of Catholic
Teachers: the image of a constellation . Pope Leo XIV, in his
recent Apostolic Letter Drawing New Maps of Hope , offered this image as
a key to understanding the world of Catholic education. The Holy Father wrote:
"I speak of a 'constellation' because the world of Catholic education
is a living and plural network : parish schools and colleges, universities
and higher institutes, vocational training centers, movements, digital
platforms, service-learning initiatives , and pastoral work in schools,
universities, and culture. Each 'star' has its own brightness, but together
they chart a course."
Behold, dear
friends: you are stars in this constellation . Each of you, each of the
countries represented here, brings a specific light—made up of history,
culture, pedagogical tradition, and particular charisms. But it is only when
these lights come together, when they accept their place in a larger plan, that
it becomes possible to chart a course. The constellation does not obliterate
the individual stars: it exalts them, giving them a meaning that transcends
their isolated brightness. Thus, the World Union of Catholic Teachers does not
ask any country to renounce its educational identity, but invites everyone to
discover how that identity acquires new depth and strength in relationships
with others.
The Pope reminds
us that "the constellations reflect their lights in an infinite universe.
Like in a kaleidoscope, their colors intertwine, creating further chromatic
variations." The encounter between different Catholic educational
experiences does not produce uniformity, but generates new variations ,
unprecedented insights, creative responses to the problems each of us faces in
our own context. When a teacher from Cameroon listens to the experience of a
colleague from the Philippines, or when a Polish educator dialogues with a
teacher from Peru, something mysteriously fruitful happens: the lights
intertwine, the colors multiply, and the horizon broadens .
Collaboration:
An Evangelical Imperative
Collaboration
among member countries is not a strategic option: it is an imperative that
arises from the Gospel itself. Christian education , as the Second
Vatican Council reminds us in Gravissimum Educationis is a choral work :
no one educates alone. Pope Leo XIV forcefully reiterated this
principle: "Christian education is a choral work: no one educates alone.
The educational community is a 'we' where teachers, students, families,
administrative and service personnel, pastors, and civil society converge to
generate life." If this is true within each individual educational
community, how much more so in the international dimension of our mission! The
'we' of Catholic education knows no national boundaries : it is a universal
'we', Catholic in the fullest sense of the term.
The exchange of
experiences among member countries is the lifeblood of this expanded
"we." It's not about exporting models or importing prepackaged
solutions. Rather, it's about practicing that "inter- and trans-
disciplinarity exercised as wisdom and creativity" that Pope Francis
identified as a method in the Apostolic Constitution Veritatis Gaudium and
that Pope Leo XIV recalled in his Apostolic Letter. Every educational
experience, even the most humble, has something to teach; and every challenge,
even the most difficult, becomes more manageable when we don't face it alone.
The Global Education Compact: Our North Star
In this
educational constellation, one star shines with particular intensity: the Global
Compact on Education . Pope Leo XIV clearly defined it as the
"North Star" of the Church's educational journey . The Holy
Father wrote: "Among the stars that guide the path is the Global Compact
on Education. I gratefully accept this prophetic legacy entrusted to us by Pope
Francis. It is an invitation to form alliances and networks to educate for
universal brotherhood." This Compact, prophetically launched by Pope
Francis and embraced with renewed energy by the reigning Pontiff, represents
the horizon within which all our efforts at international collaboration must be
placed.
The seven paths
of the Global Compact on Education—placing the person at the center ,
listening to children and young people, promoting the dignity of
women , recognizing the family as the primary educator, being open
to acceptance , renewing the economy and politics , caring for
our common home —are not programmatic abstractions. They are concrete
invitations that each member country of this Union is called to implement in
its own context, with its own sensibilities, according to its own urgent needs.
This meeting can become a place to jointly assess how each country is
responding to these invitations, what fruits are maturing, what obstacles are
being encountered, and how fraternal solidarity can help overcome them.
To the seven ways
of the Covenant, Pope Leo XIV added three priorities that seem
particularly significant to me for your daily work as educators. The first
concerns the interior life of young people : they demand depth, and
schools must offer spaces for silence, discernment, and dialogue with
conscience. The second concerns human digitality : we are called to
educate people in the wise use of technology, placing the person before the
algorithm. The third concerns peace : "Blessed are the
peacemakers" ( Mt 5:9) must become, in the words of the Holy
Father, "the method and content of learning."
The teacher: star in the constellation
At the heart of
this educational constellation is the teacher. You, dear educators, are the
stars without which no constellation could be composed. Pope Leo XIV
reminded us that teacher training—scientific, pedagogical, cultural, and
spiritual—is crucial. Technical updates are not enough, the Holy Father warns
us: "we must preserve a heart that listens, a gaze that encourages, an
intelligence that discerns ." These words accurately describe the
profile of the Catholic teacher : not a simple transmitter of knowledge,
but a witness, a companion, a craftsman of humanity.
Your mission today
is taking place in an extraordinarily complex context. The digital environment
is transforming learning and relationships; economic and social inequalities
are profoundly impacting educational opportunities; wars and migrations are creating
emergencies that are knocking at the doors of our schools. Yet, precisely in
this context, your work takes on immeasurable value. As the Holy Father reminds
us, the Catholic educational network has a unique reach, reaching every
continent with a particular presence in low-income areas, and represents
"a concrete promise of educational mobility and social justice."
Education, wrote
Pope Leo XIV, quoting his Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te , "is one
of the highest expressions of Christian charity." This tells us that every
lesson, every homework corrected, every word of encouragement addressed to a
struggling student is an act of charity. Not charitable charity, but
charity in its fullest sense : love that liberates, elevates, restores
dignity. And when this charity becomes collaboration between countries, when it
opens itself to the international dimension of exchange and solidarity, then it
becomes a prophetic testimony of that universal brotherhood that the Global
Compact on Education asks us to build.
Drawing new maps of hope
Dear friends, I
return to the image of the constellation to entrust you with a task. Constellations
have always served to orient sailors . In a world that often seems to have
lost its direction, your constellation— the constellation of Catholic
teachers throughout the world—must continue to point the way. A route that
points toward the dignity of every person, toward fraternity among peoples,
toward the protection of our common home, toward that hope which, as the
Apostle Paul assures us, "does not disappoint" ( Rom. 5.5).
May this meeting
be a moment of grace for all of you: a time to strengthen bonds, to share
struggles and hopes, to rediscover the beauty of your educational vocation
within the universal dimension of the Church. May the World Union of Catholic
Teachers grow in cohesion and fraternity, increasingly becoming the educational
"we" that the world urgently needs.
I entrust your
journey to the Virgin Mary, Sedes Sapientiae , and to all the holy
educators. And to each of you I repeat the words of the Apostle that the Holy
Father placed as a seal on his Apostolic Letter: "You must shine like
stars in the world, holding fast the word of life" ( Phil 2:15-16).
I accompany you
with prayer and bless you from my heart.
Card. José
Tolentino de Mendonça
Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education
