On September 12, 2019, in the usual Pope’s video message, Francis invited us to build a global educational pact and summoned us for May 14, 2020 in Rome, in the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican. Its objective, “to rekindle the commitment for and with the young generations, renewing the passion for a more open and inclusive education, capable of patient listening, constructive dialogue and mutual understanding.” You can access the written message HERE.
The purpose of the Pact is that representatives of the main religions, international organizations and the academic, economic, political and cultural world sign a global pact for education in order to build an alliance between the school, the family and the best energies of society, for the integral development of the person and the care of the common home at the center.
What has happened since then?
In March 2020 the instrumentum laboris and the PEG website www.educationglobalcompact.org were published But, in March, Covid-19, confinement and new health security measures arrived. The May act was postponed.
On October 15, 2020, from the Aula Magna of the Lateran University of Rome, in a meeting promoted and organized by the Congregation for Catholic Education, “Global Compact on Education. Together to look beyond”, the Pope relaunches the PEG (from minute 7:25) VIDEO
In his message, he offers seven keys to carry the Pact forward:
1 Put at the center of any formal and informal educational process the person, their value, their dignity, to highlight their own specificity, their beauty, their uniqueness and, at the same time, their ability to relate to others and with the reality that surrounds it, rejecting those lifestyles that favor the dissemination of the culture of waste.
2 Listen to the voice of children, adolescents and young people to whom we transmit values and knowledge, to build together a future of justice and peace, a dignified life for each person.
3 Promote the full participation of girls and young women in education.
4 Having the family as the first and indispensable educator.
5 Educate and educate ourselves to welcome, opening ourselves to the most vulnerable and marginalized.
6 Commit ourselves to study to find other ways of understanding the economy, politics, growth and progress, so that they are truly at the service of the person and the entire human family in the perspective of an integral ecology.
7 Safeguard and cultivate our common Home, protecting it from the exploitation of its resources, adopting more sober lifestyles and seeking the integral use of renewable energy that is respectful of the human and natural environment, following the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity and of the economy circular.
You can read the full message HERE.
Click on the logo to know its meaning.
You can delve into the Global Compact keywords by selecting the one you want:
We end with the Pope’s words in his message of October 15 and the question that Graciela left us in her letter nº 11:
“We appeal in a particular way to the men and women of culture, science and sport, to artists, to media operators, in all parts of the world, so that they too sign this pact and, With your testimony and your work, you become promoters of the values of care, peace, justice, goodness, beauty, the acceptance of the other and fraternity. We enjoy a space of co-responsibility capable of initiating and generating new processes and transformations. Let us be an active part in the rehabilitation and help of wounded societies. ” (Francisco)
“How does this call of the Pope challenge us, called to evangelize the peoples through education?” (Graciela Francovig, Superior General of the Daugther of Jesus)
