Vatican City, Sep 24, 2017 / 10:36 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican has issued new guidelines for Catholic educators, developed to help them respond to the modern challenges of a globalized society, placing a heavy emphasis on inclusion, the need to dialogue and the importance of “humanizing” education so the person is at the center.
The guidelines were published Sept. 22 in a short document entitled “Educating to Fraternal Humanism: Building a Civilization of Love 50 years after Populorum Progressio.”
Populorum Progressio is an encyclical written by Pope Paul VI in 1967 on “the development of peoples” in wake of the Second Vatican Council.
Vatican officials said the guidelines represent a fresh perspective on what Christian education means in today’s globalized world, with a special emphasis on dialogue, inclusion and creating a “humanizing” approach to education.
It was published by the Gravissimum Educationis Foundation, which was established by Pope Francis in 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on Christian education.
One of three declarations of Vatican II, Gravissimum educationis recognized the Church’s role in education, ordered toward man’s salvation, and stated fundamental principles of Christian education.
The conciliar document, issued Oct. 28, 1965, stated that Catholic schools are meant “to help youth grow according to the new creatures they were made through baptism as they develop their own personalities, and finally to order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation so that the knowledge the students gradually acquire of the world, life and man is illumined by faith.”
Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, president of the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education, told journalists that Populorum Progressio “marked a decisive watershed in the history of social issues, offering a new model of ethics that was able to embrace, with a wider gaze, all continents in the perspective of ever-increasing global interdependence.”
The document, which forms the basis for the guidelines, “underlines how urgent and necessary it is to humanize education, favoring a culture of encounter and dialogue,” he said.
And the first step in “humanizing” education, he said, is by “globalizing hope guided by the message of salvation and love from Christian revelation.”
“The solidarity and brotherhood that arise from this personal and social transformation,” he said, “will be the basis of an inclusive process capable of influencing lifestyles and economic and environmental paradigms.”
Alongside Cardinal Versaldi at the press conference were the congregation’s secretary, Archbishop Angelo Vincenzo Zani, and the Secretary General of the Gravissimum Educationis Foundation, Msgr. Guy-Réal Thivierge.
In comments to journalists, Archbishop Zani said there are three key points to the guidelinest, the first of which is “to humanize education.”
“This is very important because the Pope said at the end of the global congress in 2015 said no to proselytism, yes to humanization. So education is above all making it so the person is fully themselves.”
To do this, the person must use all the instruments available to them, but without forgetting “the dimension of transcendence” that the incarnation of Christ offers.
“For us this dimension of humanization is essential not only in an ideological or theoretical sense, but in concrete practice,” Zani said, explaining that it must be “translated into paths that go beyond the technicalities and ‘proceduralisms’ that often suffocate institutions.”
A second key aspect of the text is its emphasis on “the culture of dialogue,” which Archbishop Zani said involves “the need to pass from the throwaway culture to to the culture of dialogue.”
To this end, the text outlines the thought of French philosopher Paul Ricueur, who develops the concept of dialogue, “asking that this dialogue isn’t done on a superficial level, but on the level of the depth of the person who in order to dialogue, must enter into themselves and…put themselves into contact with the identity of the other.”
Zani then pointed to a third element of the guidelines he said is part of the core message, which is “the disposition of inclusion,” which Pope Francis himself speaks of often.
Inclusion means to encounter, rather than to exclude, Zani said, noting that “many times our institutions are exclusive more than inclusive,” and “the knowledge itself that we communicate in our institutions, is often a selective knowledge.”
“So this culture of inclusion would like to propose a knowledge that is rather understood as a good that isn’t positional, which guarantees a social position, but a relational good, which helps every person to further develop their relationships with other people,” he said.
Zani also outlined several projects the foundation is currently involved with, including research for a new models of education, a survey for youth ahead of the upcoming Synod of Bishops and a permanent observatory tasked with studying international changes and challenges to an integral education.
In comments to CNA, Cardinal Versaldi said the term “fraternal humanism” in the title of the guidelines means “to educate man, humanity, on how to be true men.”
“You cannot avoid relationships with others, which are relationships in the logic of love,” he said, and emphasized the importance of mutual sharing and enrichment, “because we aren’t all from the same place, there are inequalities, there are exclusions.”
The cardinal said that the guidelines emphasize “the duty on the part of everyone to see how to give their contribution to change a situation of inequality or of being discarded.” This, he said, is because “in a globalized world, where there inequality, a problem arises for everyone, not only for those who are discarded.”
Because of this, not only do people need to have the foresight to see and remedy situations of injustice, but institutions and governments must as well, Versaldi said. “Otherwise the world won’t be cured of its evils.”
What Catholic educational institutions can offer, he said, is the proper formation of youth in particular, so they can themselves become examples of “fraternal humanism” that others will follow.
Versaldi said the congregation won’t be asking educational institutions to change their curriculum per se, but rather, ask that educators themselves be formed in the contents of the guidelines and update their own approach based on the perspective the text offers.
“You can’t simply repeat the past, even from the point of view of content and curriculum, but you need to also be able to adapt to the new situations, always maintaining in a strong way the meaning of the Christian message, which doesn’t change through time,” he said.
According to the cardinal, there are currently more than 216,000 Catholic schools throughout the world with a student population of over 60 million from all faiths and ethnicities.
Africa boasts more than 24 million Catholic school students, and is followed by Asia, which has 13 million. The Americas have a Catholic school population of 12 million, followed by Europe with 8.6 million and Oceania with 1.2 million.
Cardinal Versaldi said that “despite falling in some western countries, in recent years there has been a steady increase in registrations on a global level.”
In addition to the number of Catholic schools and students, there are roughly 1,800 Catholic universities and 500 ecclesial faculties globally.
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Once again the faithful are asked to suffer the cancellation of public demonstration of homage to Our Lady. This recalls last year’s locking of Church doors and dispensations at Mass because of its non-essential nature. Is it any wonder that no faith is fast disappearing under the rod of such activity?
Scripture warns against a fear of material. Scripture and seeks to rather provoke fear of the eternal spiritual. (Matthew 10:28) Perennial Magisterial teaching on virtue speaks to courage and hope; where are these demonstrable in Francis? Francis chooses to travel alone with carriers of uncleanliness banned from his path. Rather should we seek and see Our Lord who sacrificed His Holy Humanity so sinners could be cleansed and made like Him.
If avoiding Covid is the reason, why didn’t he cancel the Pachamama worship in St. Peter’s?
The Pope did not have to do what you suggest here because there was the Pachamama icon was never worshipped at the Vatican. It is a lie that is still being spread by those who hate our Pope.
He had his MC place the ceremonial bowl of dirt, which specifically symbolizes Pachamama, an Idol, on St. Peter’s altar at the offertory, where it remained throughout the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And shortly after that, public Mass was canceled throughout the world and most all the Catholic churches in the whole world shut down for months, unprecedented in the history of the Church. Also it was most assuredly worshipped in the Vatican gardens, by a large circle of individuals including two Franciscans bowed their foreheads down to the ground before the idol.
People in different parts of the world show their respect in different ways. Why should everything be done in the western way, Europeans way that we are so used to. Pagan Romans used to genuflect and Catholics adopted that pagan custom. We place wedding rings on the altar.
It was clearly declared by the Pope that there was no worship. I believe him.
It is extremely curious how hypocritical and contradictory some people can be!
I know a person who tends to idolize Francis as a pope beyond criticism. Yet that same person finds a problem with Eastern Catholic Churches, in communion with the pope and with the Universal Church, simply because those Eastern Churches do not hang upon Francis’ every last word and remain aloof from embroiling RCC controversies.
Now that same person sees no problem with inculturating pagan customs and idols to Roman Catholicism simply because the pope has done so.
I leave you now to go get a grip. Good night and good day.
Mal, I am from Africa and I attend Mass with African Catholics every Sunday. I can tell you with certainty that the worship of a Demon Fertility Idol would never be allowed here. Inculturation here means, at most, using traditional African musical instruments and dress (the laity, not the Priest); it does not involve any change in worship or the sacraments.
What Francis did in 2019 is despicable, and the Covid epidemic is the Divine Punishment for it. Francis needs to atone for his violation of the 1st Commandment in sackcloth and ashes.
Interestingly, Covid spread to Italy AFTER the Pachamamas were honored, blessed, and brought into Vatican cathedrals. One could say the Pachamama idol worship led to God’s allowing Covid.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/ewtns-fr-mitch-pacwa-condemns-pachamama-worship-at-amazon-synod/
meiron, many years ago I walked into a classroom and on a wall I saw a picture placed quite prominently. The students told me that that was a picture of Jesus. However, I knew that it was not. It was a photograph of Jeffrey Hunter, the actor who had played Jesus. I wonder how many people prayed to pictures like that? And many more? All pictures, paintings of human beings and sold to us as Jesus.
I often wonder how our practices would have been if the Church had remained in Israel instead of moving to Greece and Rome which had icons of Gods.
What is your point?
Such comments seem to some as coming from the dark side of the moon. Catholics do not pray to pictures.
(Although, there’s the tale of a Protestant minister complaining to a priest that such is so; and the post Vatican II priest retorted that, no, we do not pray to statutes or pictures, we pray to banners!)
As for St. Paul and the Church crossing over to Macedonia and then to Athens, this is the Providential reason that truths of the self-revealing God can be expressed, however finitely, in the conceptual language of “reason” and “persons” and the “one and the many.” Part of the early Councils dealing with the Trinity, the three Persons of the Trinity in One God, and the two natures of Christ in one Person.
The revealed Faith–more than a religion–went the direction of analogous human reason (analogous to the interior mystery of God), rather than in the other direction of symbols which account for the many mystery religions that flourished in the late Roman Empire. Even the Jews did not remain in Israel, but dispersed into the Diaspora following the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.
In short, the Catholic Church is in history, but not of history, founded by Christ and indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
Yes, it is true that we Catholics do not worship pictures and icons, however, they are blessed and considered holy. So, why would you still persist in Protestant style accusing the Pope of worshipping an icon which represents the motherness of earth to the Amazonian Catholics? And still deliberately confusing it with the Andean (not Amazonian) pagan goddess which looks completely different. The icon was erroneously called Pachamama but this is not what the Amazonian Catholics call it.
Pope Francis, a very faithful Catholic, who is devoted to our Lady knows very well the difference between worshipping God and venerating our Lady and the saints. The so-called Pachamama in question, represents the life-sustaining gifts from God that are made available to us in and through the earth. They show their gratitude in this way because, unlike us “civilized” people, they live off the earth. We have our cars, wedding rings, and houses blessed. Just different.
Wikipedia seems to know more than some Catholics about what the Pachamamma idol represents. It has nothing to offer Catholicism. It contradicts Catholicism. There is a diabolical disorientation within those who cannot see.
“Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous peoples of the Andes. In Inca mythology she is an “Earth Mother” type goddess,[1] and a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and causes earthquakes. She is also an ever-present and independent deity who has her own creative power to sustain life on this earth.”
There is a presentation on Pachamama by Fr. Mitch Pawca on YouTube titled “Fr. Mitch Pawca on Pachamama idol worship”:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHCxjaWUZTg
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He said that the people of the Andes place Pachamama above Jesus and Mary.
S meiron, why did the other countries – India, Indonesia etc – get Covid. They did not have anything to do with the icons. Faulty reasoning from a website that does spread such falsehood.
“The pope will ask the Virgin Mary in prayer “to protect the Romans, the city in which they live, and the sick who need Her maternal protection everywhere in the world,” the statement said.”
This is the beautiful message that should warm our hearts. Pope Francis has always been devoted to our Lady, who would appreciate the continuation of this devotion in a manner that accommodates the sacredness of the occasion and the physical wellbeing of the people. Mary, who was concerned about the lack of wine at a wedding, will be equally concerned about the devastating effects of the virus. Well, that’s the Mother that I know.