The Global Education Pact (GEP or Pact) was launched by Pope Francis in September 2019. The COVID pandemic had an impact on its implementation. At the same time, it made it more necessary. The Education Commission of the UISG-USG was a help to us, as to many congregations. Our desires to carry forward the Call to the union of educators (May 2019) and to respond to the Pope’s invitation were a concern from the very beginning.
What has it meant so far?
The General Government set up a team made up of sisters and lay people from the five provinces to reflect and help us move forward in the GC’s Call and that of the Pope.
We discovered the confluence between the two. The First International Meeting of Educators, in October 2021, made it visible and we assumed the commitment to the PEG as a Congregation. Since then, we have tried to facilitate the adhesion of each Center.
It has meant getting to know it and making it known, reflecting on it and making it easier for the Centers to take it on board. At the same time, to publish it so that others would be encouraged and to get to know us better as a network.
The II International Meeting of Educators, held at the end of April, has helped us to connect and connect around our educational style (NMPE) and to grasp its connection with the proposal made by Pope Francis.
Where do we stand?
A large majority of Centers are at the point where we are beginning to look at our environments from the perspective of the objectives of the PEG. It is not possible to address them all at the same time, we can start with some of the most necessary ones. It is a matter of looking for allies to face it, so that our “collaborators” become “educators” with us and we with them. This is Stage III, alliances.
Adhesions
Practically all the schools have joined in. The last ones, the Sagrada Familia school in Valladolid, which has involved the entire educational community and the Daughters of Jesus, and the Gamarra school in Malaga, both belonging to the Jesuitinas Educational Foundation.
All five provinces have been involved. Of the fifty schools, only six have not yet reported. That doesn’t mean they are not working on it.
On the occasion of the II International Meeting of Educators, held last April, we know that the two University Colleges that the Daughters of Jesus run in Spain are also interested. The same is true of the two boarding schools in Bolivia and Bangladesh.
However, in the face of such a broad horizon, with such urgent and unattainable short-term objectives as those presented by the Pact, the “there is always time” is an incentive for those who have not yet joined.
Next steps
Those who have not yet joined the PEG are in time to learn about it and take it on board (Stage I).
Those who have assumed it and have not yet started a simple analysis of their activity and climate with respect to the objectives are at the right time to be encouraged by their capabilities and to face a “meaningful” and charismatic improvement (Stage II).
Those who have completed the previous Stages (although improvement requires constant work) are at the moment of looking at the environment and seeking allies, in mutual help, to promote “the educational village” (Stage III).
On the other hand, knowing that we are collaborating with “sister schools”, that we are building the educational village simultaneously from different parts of the world, is encouraging. The door is open to consider what more concrete support we can offer each other and ask for as a network.
Maria Teresa Pinto FI
