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Illustration:Christus Pantocrator – (Cathedral of Cefalù, c. 1130.)
Pope Francis’ address to the Catholic Union of Teachers, Managers, Educators, Trainers (UCIIM);
the Italian Association of Catholic Teachers (AIMC);
The Association of Catholic School Parents (AGESc)
Paul VI Audience Hall – Saturday, 4 January 2025
“The pedagogy of God is a pedagogy of gift”.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
I am pleased to meet you on the occasion of the anniversaries of your Associations: the 80th of the Italian Association of Catholic Primary School Teachers and of the Italian Union of Catholic School Teachers, Managers, Educators and Trainers, and the 50th of the Association of Catholic School Parents.
It is a beautiful opportunity to celebrate together, to remember your history and to look to the future.
This exercise, this movement between roots, memory and fruits, the results, is the key to engagement in education.
Our meeting takes place in the liturgical season of Christmas, a time that shows us God’s pedagogy.
And what is his “educational method?”, God’s educational method? It is that of proximity, closeness. God is close, compassionate and tender.
The three qualities of God: closeness, compassion and tenderness.
Closeness. Proximity.
Like a teacher who enters the world of his pupils, God chooses to live among humans to teach through the language of life and love.
Jesus was born in a condition of poverty and simplicity: this calls us to a pedagogy that values the essential and places humility, gratuitousness and acceptance at the center.
Pedagogy that is distant and out of touch with people does not serve, does not help.
Christmas teaches us that greatness is manifested in love and service to others:
it is not manifested success or wealth.
The pedagogy of God is a pedagogy of gift.
It is a call to live in communion with Him and with others, as part of a project of universal brotherhood: a plan in which the family has a central and irreplaceable position.
Moreover, this pedagogy is an invitation to recognize the dignity of every person, beginning with those who are discarded and at the margins, just as shepherds were treated two thousand years ago. and to appreciate the value of every phase of life, including childhood.
The family is at the center, do not forget.
A person told me that one Sunday he was having lunch in a restaurant, and at the next table there was a family: father, mother, son and daughter. All four of them were on their cell phones, not talking to each other. This person sensed something, and walked over and said:: “But you are a family, why don’t you talk to each other and talk like this. This is a strange thing….”
They listened to him, sent him packing and continued to do these things.
Please, in the family talk to each other! Family is dialogue, dialogue makes us grow!
Today’s meeting also takes place at the beginning of the journey of the Jubilee, launched a few days ago with the incarnation of the Son of God when hope entered the world.
The Jubilee has much to say to the world of education, and school. Indeed, “pilgrims of hope” are all people who seek meaning for their life and also those who help the smallest to walk on this path.
A good teacher is a man or a woman of hope, because he or she devotes himself or herself with rrust and patience to a project of human growth.
His or her hope is not naive, it is rooted in reality, sustained by the conviction that every educational effort has value and that every person has a dignity and a vocation that deserve to be nurtured.
It pains me when I see children who are not educated and who go to work, many times exploited, or who go looking for food or things to sell among the garbage.
It is hard. And of these children there are some!!
Hope is the engine that sustains the educator in their daily effort, even in difficulty and failure.
But how do we not lose hope and nurture it every day?
Keep your gaze fixed on Jesus, teacher and fellow traveler.
This allows you to truly be pilgrims of hope.
Think of the people you meet at school, children and adults alike: “Everyone hopes.
In the heart of every person is contained hope as a desire and expectation of the good, while not knowing what tomorrow will bring”.
These human hopes, through each of you, can encounter Christian hope, the hope that is born of faith and lives in charity.
And let us not forget: hope does not disappoint.
Optimism disappoints, but hope does not disappoint.
A hope that surpasses all human desire, because it opens minds and hearts to life and eternal beauty.
The school needs this!
Feel called to elaborate and transmit a new culture, based on the encounter between generations, on inclusion, on the discernment of the true, the good and the beautiful; a culture of responsibility, personal and collective, to face global challenges such as environmental, social and economic crises, and the great challenge of peace.
At school you can “imagine peace,” that is, lay the foundations for a more just and fraternal world, with the contribution of all disciplines and the creativity of children and young people.
But if at school you make war among yourselves, if at school you bully girls and boys who have some problems, this is preparing for war not peace! Please, never bullying! Take courage and go ahead. Dear sisters and brothers, you are here today to celebrate significant anniversaries of your Associations, which were established to make a contribution to the school, for the better achievement of its educational goals.
And not to the school as a container, but to the people who live and work in it: the students, teachers, parents, managers and all staff.
