The Church and education

Education is one of the themes of the next decade’s Pastoral Guidelines – 2010-2020 -, along with the economic and financial crisis, the so-called “moral question”, immigration, the EU and schools. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference addressed a number of issues during the press conference held May 29 in the Vatican upon the conclusion of the 59th General Assembly of Italian Bishops (May 25-29).The choice of “education”. “The Bishops highlighted the urgent need to address and probe into the theme of education: a high-priority issue of the contemporary world, as the Pope underlined on many occasions in Rome and elsewhere”. Cardinal Bagnasco confirmed the choice of “education” as a theme for the Pastoral Guidelines of the next decade 2010-2020. “Before the urgent question of education, experienced at global level and dramatic under many aspects, we mustn’t stop hoping”, His Eminence said. “Hope is the virtue of the future and thus it primarily regards the youth”. The CEI President declared, “it is necessary that all those parties that can provide the youth with positive occasions for growth, namely the family, associations, school establishments and media channels, cooperate in the realm of education”. “We cannot remain indifferent to the call for help coming from the youth. We ought to jointly respond to this call in order to help the youth break the cycle of overwhelming despondent passions marked by boredom and emptiness, and which could pave the way to worse scenarios”. Cardinal Bagnasco said he is “optimistic”, since “the human and social realm is imbued with upright and serious values that ought to be conveyed and disseminated”. The Cardinal equally underlined that the CEI cultural project service will support the development of this theme starting with a “Proposal-report” that is undergoing definition, and which will be issued in the forthcoming months. Economic and financial crisis. As relates to the ongoing downturn in the economy His Eminence remarked, “we all hope to recover from the crisis as soon as possible, as a number of signs lead us believe. However, we do not wish to return to the previous state. We ought to be better than we were in the past, we ought to be wiser and humbler”. The Cardinal declared, “we ought to have learned from the ongoing crisis that we must lead a more sober way of living. To this regard, it must be pointed out that the social doctrine of the Church defines the value and dignity of the human person as the very core of reflection and intervention. Thus, in these dire moments, workers must not be viewed as a burden, since accordingly individuals would become merely instrumental, and this must not be accepted”. His Eminence encouraged the authorities to take into account aid measures and social buffers aimed at helping workers in difficulty, including temporary employees. Moral question and Europe. The moral question, declared the CEI President, in response to a question on ethics and politicians’ consistency, “is not a new issue, since when we speak of ethics we are speaking about the Gospel’s reverberations upon concrete behaviours”. “The ethical question applies to every individual. Our inner structure largely depends on our beliefs and on the consistency of our behaviours”, Cardinal Bagnasco pointed out. “This is true for everyone, for the believer and for others”. In fact, “consistent behaviour must regard everyone”. “The Church is invested with proclaiming the Gospel in its entirety in both the doctrinal and ethical realms. The Church offers this service to all those who are willing to receive it. Church teaching is for everyone”. The Cardinal said he hopes that “everyone will consider it duly”. His Eminence also addressed the progress of Europe that “ought to have a soul”. The progress of Europe, he said, “ought to continue, but Europe must have a soul”. Europe must become “the home of the Peoples, as John Paul II described it”. “The Home of the Peoples isn’t a figure of speech, but of substance. The two terms (home and peoples ed.’s note) recall specific realities and indicate the path of the EU”. Immigration and education. As relates to the migration phenomenon, the Cardinal referred that during the Assembly, the Bishops “devoted much attention to the section of the prolusion regarding immigration. During their addresses, the Bishops reiterated a fundamental criteria: to bring together solidarity and reception – which are part and parcel of the DNA of our people, our culture and of our ethos – with the theme of security”. CEI President underlined that “the bishops confirmed this interpretative key”, since the migration phenomenon “involves the European Union”, thus “international cooperation ought to be more efficacious”. As relates to the school environment, His Eminence remarked, “State and non-state schools are equally public schools, as envisaged by the law. This outlook is a great step forward in conceptual terms. This very recognition ought to be extended to the concrete economic plane of what is being offered to everyone”. The Cardinal said he hopes that “parents will be granted financial support enabling them to freely chose their children’s education without further expenditure”.