ITALY
Bishops’ Assembly: the educational question “Education is a choral task: we educate everyone together, or we educate no one”; that’s why we need to remind “the Christian community as a whole of the task and dignity of the educational mission” to offer “reasons of hope and of life in every context” and promote “the full freedom and dignity of every person”, said Bishop Diego Coletti of Como, who chairs the Committee of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) for Catholic education, schools and universities. Mgr. Coletti was addressing the 59th General Assembly of the CEI (which ends in Rome today, May 29) on: “The educational question: the urgent task of education”. Presenting the theme that will be an object of reflection by the Italian Church as a whole for the next decade, Bishop Coletti pointed out that “the educational relation is always a two-way process: all of us are always those who educate and those who are educated”. That’s why “only those who recognize that their learning process is never ending can be good educators”, and only those who assume responsibility for “their own self-education and the active educational stimulation of everyone they meet can place themselves in the right condition as disciples”. “The description of the educational process in terms of pure activity on one side and passive reception on the other – explained the bishop – is false and damaging”. According to Mgr. Coletti, there are two categories of educational environments. First, there is that of the “primary protagonists”. They include the family “with particular regard for the indispensable responsibility of parents”; the Christian community, “especially in its parish dimension and then in its other spheres and articulations”; and schools “of every kind and grade, to foster the educational role and the mission of teachers”. Among the “wider subjects” of the educational task Mgr. Coletti sees the society in its various articulations and cultural environments in the broad sense with “their styles, their laws and habits, the conditioning of ‘fashions’ and ‘public opinion'”, but also “social communication, in its more traditional forms, and the new cybernetic and global media”, as well as “the world of work, its dynamics and relations, leisure time and its use”, and also the “world of suffering and its ‘management’, torn between the exercise of solidarity and the temptation to exclude oneself from it”.Youth Forum… ready to start againThe Italian Youth Forum is due to end on 30 and 31 May with a series of events and initiatives. The Forum (Agorà as it is called in Italian) is the triennial pastoral programme promoted by the Italian episcopate as a sign of particular attention for the youth world. The decision to propose a national programme was taken by the Standing Council of the CEI in March 2006 with the aim of promoting “a new dynamic of youth pastoral care, an ever growing participation of the new generations in the mission of the Church and a growing involvement of youth in the life of the Italian Church”. The first pastoral year (2006/2007) was dedicated to listening to the young; it set itself the objective of “taking the Church (her communities, youth, clergy and staff…) outside their own usual spheres of action in order to establish new relations with the young in the environments they frequent in daily life”. The key moment of this first year was the meeting of youth with Benedict XVI at Loreto (September 2007). The focal point of the following year (2007/2008) was “evangelization, both at the level of witness and daily presence in the various spheres of life, and as extraordinary initiatives of mission”. World Youth Day in Sydney (July 2008) was its culmination. The third and final year (2008/2009) was devoted to fostering “the cultural and social dimension of evangelization in order to tackle the question of personal and community witness, in the great cultural and social questions” of our time. This three-year process will now conclude with a final event held simultaneously in each Italian diocese, in sanctuaries as in piazzas, in stadiums, and in places where young people meet. A considerable effort has been made by the local churches to organize local events for next weekend, which also coincides with Pentecost Sunday. From North to South the dioceses are expressing imagination, creativity and an ability to use a language most closely attuned to the youth world. From concerts in city squares to events promoted on Facebook and other social networking sites on the internet, from solidarity with the youth struck by the earthquake in the Abruzzo in April to nocturnal pilgrimages on foot to sanctuaries cherished by the diocesan tradition, the programme is wide-ranging; it also includes cinema, theatre, sport and naturally prayer. Each diocesan programme will culminate with the celebration of Pentecost on the night of 30 May. Other forthcoming events include the 11th national congress – the first after the Youth Forum – organized by the Youth Pastoral Service of the CEI: it will be held at Metaponto (Matera), from 22 to 25 October 2009.
