AMERICA/MEXICO - The Catholic school in America has a future, but the task ahead is not easy

Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Celam

Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) - " The Catholic school of America has a future!". With this conviction, the 27th Inter-American Congress of Catholic Education concluded in Mexico City on May 27 and 28, with the participation of 1,200 educational leaders from the continent and organized by the Inter-American Confederation of Catholic Education (CIEC). According to information released by CELAM, the conclusions of the Congress highlighted the prolonged crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and the "multiple pandemics that our peoples suffer in the social, political, economic and cultural spheres, including access to quality education". In addition, the words that Pope Francis addressed in 2020 to the world leaders gathered at the United Nations Assembly were recalled: "We never emerge from a crisis just as we were. We come out either better or worse. This is why, at this critical juncture, it is our duty to rethink the future of our common home and our common project". The Catholic school of America has taken seriously this call from the Bishop of Rome, because "it has stood up to 'walk together', educators, synodally, in alliance and in communion with other organizations of the continent, ecclesial and non-ecclesial, to build the 'future' that these new times require of us". More specifically, in the face of the global crisis, "this space for fraternal encounter and profound reflection on the 'future of education', in the perspective of change and innovation, represents a new step to rethink identity and mission, to 'learn to transform' in synergy with the Global Educational Pact".
Faced with the need to prioritize an eco-sustainable education to address the challenge of fraternity and care for the common home, "this Congress has offered new and relevant inputs". The task that lies ahead for the Catholic school is not an easy one. "It implies a commitment to leadership with creativity, to new forms of educational governance, to the management of innovation and quality, to prioritizing the most vulnerable and excluded from educational ecosystems, which includes overcoming the digital gap".
The conclusions also underline how it is "imperative to train in digital, emotional, communicative skills, and in critical thinking, collaborative work, interdisciplinarity and problem solving, all with a view to the new citizens of the 21st century." The observations that emerged at the 27th Inter-American Congress of Catholic Education point to the strengthening of the DNA of the Catholic school: "evangelize by educating and educate by evangelizing, from the perspective of humanism in solidarity and making use of the best tools, knowledge and technologies that we have, to be increasingly significant and relaunch the educational pact in the face of the current educational emergency". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 31/5/2022)


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