Video Message to Participants to OIEC's World Congress in New York

Abstract

In his video message sent on the occasion of the closing plenary of OIEC’s World Congress, Pope Francis expressed sincere gratitude for all those who work in Catholic education. “I thank you for this service, and through you I would like to convey my sincere gratitude to all those who work in Catholic education: lay people, men and women religious, and priests,” he said. He also conveyed his warmest greetings to millions of students who attend Catholic institutes in city centers, making special mention of Catholic school students who live in the peripheries of society. The Pope said young people are the “today” of God and are the today of the Catholic Church’s educational mission. The OIEC International Congress 2019 — taking place under the theme Educatio Si -”Be educated” — is strongly focused on Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si (2015) and on the contribution of Catholic schools to teaching the values of solidarity, humanism, and the safeguarding of the common house. M adame President, Mr. Secretary General, Dear friends! I am happy to convey my most cordial greetings to all of you, who give life in the City of New York to the World Congress of OIEC on the topic: To Educate to fraternal humanism in order to build the civilization of love. I wish to extend a special greeting to your President, Madame Augusta Muthigani and to the Secretary General, Mr. Philippe Richard, as well as to the Secretaries of the Regional Committees of OIEC, and to the members of the different organizations. Your committed participation is a clear manifestation of the passion with which you live the educational mission in the spirit of the Gospel and according to the teachings of the Church. I am grateful to you for this service, and, through you, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all those who work in Catholic teaching, including the lay faithful, women-religious, men-religious, Video Message to Participants 253 and priests. My thought goes with affection to the millions of female and male students who attend Catholic institutions in the cities and above all in the peripheries, as well as to their families. The young, as I have said during the World Youth Day in Panama, belong to the today of God, and therefore they are also the today of our educational mission. The deepening that you intend to undertake on the contribution of education to fraternal humanism should be understood as in line with the Declaration of the Second Vatican Council Gravissimum Educationis and I quote the Council: All men of every race, condition and age, since they enjoy the dignity of a human being, have an inalienable right to an education that is in keeping with their ultimate goal, their ability, their sex, and the culture and tradition of their country, and also in harmony with their fraternal association with other peoples in the fostering of true unity and peace on earth. (Paul VI, $, no. 1)