The central theme of the 48th General Chapter of the Pious Schools is “the centrality of Christ Jesus, the Lord.” It is the axis around which everything revolves; it is the central choice that illuminates our entire life and mission. This means not only that we must pursue specific objectives and actions that make it visible and promote it, but above all that we must try to ensure that the centrality of Christ decisively illuminates and inspires everything we try to do and live.
Our Piarist identity must also be articulated from Christ, the source of inspiration for our educational project in its aims, content, organization, and methodology.
Recently, in a video message addressed to the Educational Congress held at the Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo School in Madrid (Spain), Pope Leo XIV gave a courageous speech in which he proposed returning to Christ as our compass and called for courageous educators in an age dominated by algorithms and cultural confusion.
This message connects with the charismatic core of the Piarists and can serve to help our educators reflect on the most genuine identity of our educational proposal.
Dear educators,
I address you with feelings of profound joy and gratitude. Your daily commitment is no easy task in the face of constant change in educational processes, made even more difficult by extreme digitalization and cultural fragmentation. I often pause to think about how much good you do in the midst of truly complex conditions. Your mission in the service of the Church is a living leaven not only for the new generations, but also for the communities that find in it a solid point of reference (cf. Mt 13:33).
With your history and different pedagogical approaches, you represent a wealth of charisms that form the constellation of Christian paideia. Faced with this colorful constellation, we must not lose sight of the centrality of Christ, who shines his light on all the stars. This kaleidoscope of beautiful colors leads me to reflect on the theme of your meeting: “Without identity there is no education.” Christian identity is not a decorative label or an ornament, but the very core that gives meaning, method, and purpose to the educational process.
As happens to sailors, if they lose sight of the North Star, it is not uncommon for the ship to drift off course. For Christian education, the compass is Christ. Without his light, the educational mission itself becomes meaningless and turns into an automatism without the transformative capacity offered by the Gospel (cf. Rom 12:2). Therefore, it is a matter of responding fully to a vocation and a totally original project, which is embodied in practices, in the curriculum, and in the educational community itself.
Identity is not, either, an accessory or a facade that becomes visible through isolated rituals or even repetitive mechanisms, devoid of vitality. Identity is the foundation that articulates the educational mission, defines its horizon of meaning, and guides its daily practices, both in the way it teaches and in the way it evaluates and acts. When identity does not inform pedagogical decisions, it runs the risk of becoming a superficial adornment that fails to sustain educational work in the face of the many cultural, ethical, and social tensions that characterize our times of polarization and violence.
The words of María Zambrano come to mind. Reflecting on the challenges and tensions of the contemporary world with her particular poetic sensibility, she is convinced that the link between the present and the future cannot ignore the legacy of the past, because “our soul is crisscrossed by sediments of centuries; the roots are greater than the branches that see the light.”
I invite you, therefore, to reflect on these words, looking hopefully toward the future without forgetting our history, from which we must learn with wisdom. Authentic education, therefore, promotes the integration of faith and reason. They are not polar opposites, but complementary paths to understanding reality, forming character, and cultivating intelligence. Consequently, it is essential that the educational experience promote methods that involve science and history, as well as ethics and spirituality.
This is fully realized in an educational community that is like a home. A true collaboration between the family, the parish, the school, and the local community concretely accompanies each student on their journey of faith and learning.
If we look more closely, as the venerable Fathers of the Second Vatican Council had already indicated, the Church rediscovers her maternal role in her educational mission. She is the mother who gives birth to believers, because she is the spouse of Christ. Almost all the conciliar documents refer to the motherhood of the Church to reveal her mystery and her pastoral action, as well as to extend her love in an ecumenical embrace to her “separated children” and to believers of other religions, reaching out to all people of good will. This happens every day in your schools, which are open to dialogue and encounter between differences. In them, education becomes an instrument of peace and care for creation.
Recently, during the Jubilee of the World of Education, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the conciliar Declaration Gravissimum educationis, which I invite you to reread carefully, appreciating its relevance and vision of the future, despite the many years that have passed. In fact, the Church has been urged to “take care of the whole life of man, including his earthly life, insofar as it relates to his supernatural vocation; therefore, it has a specific task with regard to the progress and development of education.”
In this way, the icon of the Mother Church presents itself to us not only as an expression of tenderness and charity, but also as the one who safeguards that capacity—intrinsically linked to her—to be a guide and teacher, having been entrusted by “her most holy Founder […] a twofold task: to beget children, to educate and sustain them, guiding with maternal providence the lives of individuals and peoples, whose great dignity she always respected and protected with solicitude.”
In concluding this message, it is clear that the Church’s educational activity — carried out through schools and formative activities — is not simply a commendable philanthropic work to satisfy or sustain a social need, but is an essential part of her identity and mission. Therefore, I encourage you to commit yourselves courageously and to look forward with that living hope that is renewed every day in your educational passion.
Thanking you for all your efforts, dear educators, I greet you and bless you.
