Global Compact on Education Initiative: Together, to Look Further; Says Pope Francis

By Verghese V Joseph –

The initiatives of the “Global Compact on Education” will resume on 15 October 2020 in a virtual meeting setting opened with a message from Pope Francis. The aim of the initiative is to build networks, share experiences and look beyond with creativity.

Ideally in May 2020, the Global Compact on Education, promoted by Pope Francis to generate, through education, a change of mentality on a planetary scale should have taken place. However, the COVID-19 pandemic which forced the event to be canceled, has made the Holy Father’s appeal even more pressing. In Pope’s words’ “We need to unite our efforts for the common home, so that education can create brotherhood, peace and justice.”

For this reason, a virtual meeting will be held, open to all and live on the Vatican Media Youtube channel, during which a video message from Pope Francis will be broadcast, together with testimonies and international experiences, to look beyond with creativity.

The event, organized by the Congregation for Catholic Education, will include 216,000 Catholic schools, attended by over 60 million pupils, and 1,750 Catholic universities, with over 11 million students world over.

This meeting is expected to rekindle their dedication for and with young people, renewing their passion for a more open and inclusive education, including patient listening, constructive dialogue and better mutual understanding. “Never before has there been such need to unite our efforts in a broad educational alliance, to form mature individuals capable of overcoming division and antagonism, and to restore the fabric of relationships for the sake of a more fraternal humanity,” the Holy Father said in his message.

Pope Francis drew attention to the fact that, “Today’s world is constantly changing and faces a variety of crises. We are experiencing an era of change: a transformation that is not only cultural but also anthropological, creating a new semantics while indiscriminately discarding traditional paradigms. Education clashes with what has been called a process of “rapidification” that traps our existence in a whirlwind of high-speed technology and computerization, continually altering our points of reference. As a result, our very identity loses its solidity and our psychological structure dissolves in the face of constant change that “contrasts with the naturally slow pace of biological evolution” (Laudato Si’, 18).”

“Every change calls for an educational process that involves everyone. There is thus a need to create an “educational village”, in which all people, according to their respective roles, share the task of forming a network of open, human relationships. According to an African proverb, “it takes a whole village to educate a child”. We have to create such a village before we can educate. In the first place, the ground must be cleared of discrimination and fraternity must be allowed to flourish, as I stated in the Document that I signed with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar on 4 February this year in Abu Dhabi,” the Holy Father stated.

Pope further stated that in this kind of village it is easier to find global agreement about an education that integrates and respects all aspects of the person, uniting studies and everyday life, teachers, students and their families, and civil society in its intellectual, scientific, artistic, athletic, political, business and charitable dimensions. “An alliance, in other words, between the earth’s inhabitants and our “common home”, which we are bound to care for and respect. An alliance that generates peace, justice and hospitality among all peoples of the human family, as well as dialogue between religions,” he remarked.

The Holy Father went on to reiterate that, “To reach these global objectives, our shared journey as an “educating village” must take important steps forward. First, we must have the courage to place the human person at the centre. To do so, we must agree to promote formal and informal educational processes that cannot ignore the fact that the whole world is deeply interconnected, and that we need to find other ways, based on a sound anthropology, of envisioning economics, politics, growth and progress. In the development of a integral ecology, a central place must be given to the value proper to each creature in its relationship to the people and realities surrounding it, as well as a lifestyle that rejects the throw-away culture.”

“Another step,” he said adding, “is to find the courage to capitalize on best energies, creatively and responsibly. To be proactive and confident in opening education to a long-term vision unfettered by the status quo. This will result in men and women who are open, responsible, prepared to listen, dialogue and reflect with others, and capable of weaving relationships with families, between generations, and with civil society, and thus to create a new humanism.”

“Let us seek solutions together, boldly undertake processes of change and look to the future with hope. I invite everyone to work for this alliance and to be committed, individually and within our communities, to nurturing the dream of a humanism rooted in solidarity and responsive both to humanity’s aspirations and to God’s plan,” he added.