Pope: 'Key to education is good school-family collaboration'

By Lisa Zengarini

Pope Francis met on Thursday with a delegation from the Catholic publishing group "La Scuola," one of Italy’s leaders in the education sector.

The company was founded in 1904 in Brescia, in northern Italy, by a group of laypeople and clergy who wanted to promote Catholic-inspired education in Italian schools. It has since expanded by acquiring other Italian Catholic publishing houses, SEI and Capitello.

In his address, Pope Francis praised the company’s pedagogical expertise and ongoing service to education. 

He said their accomplishments over the past 120 years have fulfilled the wishes expressed by Pope Saint Paul VI in 1965 when receiving a delegation from La Scuola Editrice, to whose foundation his father had contributed.  

The Pope commended their resilience in facing competition and adapting to the changing Italian cultural landscape marked by growing indifference to religious values.

He noted that their “passion” for education and the formation of educators “reflects the awareness that forming young people in the values of the Gospel provides an essential contribution to a society of responsible individuals capable of building bonds of fraternity with everyone.”

Indeed, being Catholic, the Pope remarked, recalling his Encyclical Letter Fratelli tutti, involves embracing the good found everywhere, as taught by the Second Vatican Council. “This," he said, "leads to an open and dialogical attitude towards everyone.”

The core task of education, he added. is not merely about knowledge but about fostering human and spiritual growth.

Educating, said the Pope, means “helping to think well, to feel well—the language of the heart—and to act well—the language of the hands.”  

“This vision,” the Pope remarked, “is particularly relevant today, as we feel the need for an educational pact capable of uniting families, schools, and society as a whole” to address the epochal changes of our times. 

"Far from being a reason for lament or fear,” the Pope said these changes represent “a new opportunity” to “cultivate a thirst for knowledge and wisdom” in the new generations.

He  recalled that “the Bible teaches us that in moments of crisis, the voices of prophets have shown horizons of hope.”

Concluding, Pope Francis, encouraged the Editrice "La Scuola" to continue its mission of fostering fraternity and hope through education, in line with their founders' goal.