Recently, on April 7, seven of us educators met to look for ways to promote the union of educators in the M. Candida School, to reflect on the educational challenges of our world, as a way of helping our schools to gain evangelizing strength. Our objective is the sixth call (9) that we received from GC XVIII.
The Meeting of Educators which we held last October on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Congregation was a first, important moment of response, and we will try to give it continuity. This was also an online meeting.
Each one of us introduced ourselves and prayed with one another We are Angenita Gallo FI from the Andean America Province, Cassia Lara from Brazil-Caribbean, Petra Wu FI from East Asia, Rosalie Idulsa and Gemma Dogiles FI from the Indian Pacific, Helena García de la Cera, from the Jesuit Educational Foundation in Spain and María Teresa Pinto FI, who is in charge of the area of educators.
We ended this moment listening again to the words of the Master: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and put into three measures of flour until it leavened everything” (Mt. 13, 33). (Mt. 13, 33).
Graciela Francovig FI, our Superior General, who had just arrived from Spain at the end of the canonical visitation, greeted us and said a few words.
Graciela told us that, in her opinion, of the six Calls of GC. XVIII, this was the one that presented the greatest novelty because the others had already been dealt with previously. She recalled the words that she addressed to us at the end of the Congregation and alluded to the need to promote space, to provide means, and to make gestures, small or perhaps more significant, that would lead us to think together about the universal challenges of the educational reality.
We recall significant moments prior to this one:
– The previous General Government promoted the creation of a virtual space to share resources, and some of the members present worked on it.
– The 150th Anniversary Educators’ Meeting.
– The next step was our commitment to the Pact and the possibility of using its seal by all the M. Candida Schools. Candida Schools. We were sent the “personalized” Guide, with our logo and Graciela’s words at the end.
From now on, it is a question of taking new steps to advance in the Call. At the moment we have scheduled five meetings until the end of the year.
The teams of the Educators’ Meeting 150 handed in some proposals that we already have in the three languages. We are going to try to answer this question: What does God want from us? In two aspects: two accents of our school that we have to underline and two steps for the union of educators, sometimes we say “to make a network”.
Before finishing, there was time to share what is happening in the Catholic school in each one’s environment or context, to give us all an idea of what is happening in the different places. The pandemic has affected everyone, although some more than others. The education gap is a reality.
This team, with all the educators of the M. Candida School scattered around the world, is encouraged to believe in the power of the leaven, in the power of the Kingdom.
María Teresa Pinto FI.
