"It is the Holy Scripture that guides to education and thus to true humanism". It was said, off the cuff, by the Pope, as he lingered again at a rain-soaked general audience in front of about 13 thousand people on the figure of Saint Jerome and his "Christian educational theory". "Just today we see said Benedict XVI off the cuff that education to responsibility in front of God and man is the true condition of every progress, of every peace, of every reconciliation". Among the contents of this "education in front of God and in front of man", starting from the Scriptures, in Jerome we find again, according to the Pope, "the importance attached to a healthy education since one’s infancy, the peculiar responsibility owed to parents, the urgency of a serious moral and religious education, the need of study for a more complete human maturation". In addition, "an aspect that was fairly disregarded in the old times but which is considered vital by our author is the promotion of the woman, which he recognises as entitled to a complete education". The Pope concluded his catechesis by recalling the "effective contribution" made by Jerome "to the protection of the positive and effective elements of the ancient Jewish, Greek and Roman cultures in the rising Christian civilisation".
