Twelve years ago, on 13 March 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pontiff, becoming the 266th successor of Saint Peter.
To commemorate the 12th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis, the first Latin American Pope, the first Jesuit Pope and the first Pope to take the name Francis in honor of the patron saint of ecology, we share 12 messages that the Bishop of Rome addressed to the Lasallian Family during his speech to those taking part in the 46th General Chapter of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, on 21 May 2022: General Chapter of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, on 21 May 2022:
- The truly new way is Jesus Christ: by following him, by walking with him, our lives are transformed, and we in turn become leaven, salt and light.
- For you, following the charism of Saint John Baptist de la Salle, these “new paths” are first and foremost pathways of education, to be achieved in the schools, colleges and universities that you manage in around 100 countries in which you are present.
- Educational work is a great gift first and foremost for those who carry it out: it is work that demands a lot, but that gives a lot!
- The constant relationship with educators, with parents, and especially with children and young people is an ever-living source of humanity.
- You offer the values of your rich pedagogical tradition: you educate in responsibility, creativity, coexistence, justice and peace; you educate in the inner life, in being open to the transcendent, in the sense of wonder and contemplation before the mystery of life and creation. You live and interpret all of this in Christ, and you translate it into the fullness of humanity.
- To educate in this way is your apostolate, your specific contribution to evangelization: to make the person grow according to Christ. In this sense, your schools are “Christian”: not because of an external label, but because they take this path.
- The two great challenges of our time — the challenge of fraternity and the challenge of caring for the common home — cannot be answered except through education. Both are primarily educational challenges.
- You are part of this construction project. Indeed, you are in the front line, educating so as to move from a closed world to an open world; from a throwaway culture to a culture of care; from a culture of rejection to a culture of integration; from the pursuit of vested interests to the pursuit of the common good.
- As educators, you know very well that this transformation must start from the conscience, or it will only be a façade.
- To be good workers, you must not neglect yourselves! You cannot give to the young what you do not have within yourselves.
- The Christian educator, in the school of Christ, is first of all a witness, and he is a teacher to the extent that he is a witness.
- Thank you for what you are and what you do! Go forth with the joy of evangelizing by educating and of educating by evangelizing.
* Photos: Vatican Media.
