Br. Emili Turú, Superior General

During the celebration of the Synod on the New Evangelization, which Br Emili Turú, Superior General, attended as an auditor, the auditors were invited, if they so wished, to address the Assembly for up to four minutes. Following we find the resume of Br Emili’s address as offered by the Synod’s General Secretariat:

The Church enjoys the privilege of having approximately 56 million children and youth in its educational structures. Might this not be a wonderful occasion for sharing the gifts of the Christian community with children and young people, as well as for welcoming the many gifts that they can bring to the Church?

It seems, therefore, to be just the right moment to emphasize the importance of Catholic educational institutions and to encourage them so that they might become even more centers of the “New Evangelization”. The Catholic school is right in the “heart of the Church”: “it participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church and is the privileged environment in which Christian education is carried out” (The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millenium, 11).

In many countries, Catholic educational institutions are, in fact, “courtyards of the Gentiles”, a space in which faith, culture and life may give rise to a dialogue. Many families that are far from the faith and the Church entrust the education of their children to Catholic schools, which for many children and young people represents what is probably the only occasion in which they have any contact with the Church.

However, so that our educational institutions may be real centers of new evangelization and authentic “courtyards of the Gentiles”, it is essential to make the right people available for this effort. It is therefore important to invite teachers to take responsibility for this role inasmuch as they are baptized in the Church, through their vocation to education, and further, to encourage dioceses, religious families and all those who carry out this responsibility in the schools, to facilitate this exercise of co-responsibility, providing the necessary formation and accompaniment.

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Read, in Spanish, an interview with Br. Emili by periodistadigital.com