Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion
The Members of the Congregation for Catholic Education’s Plenary Assembly, meeting in 2011, accepted the suggestion of Pope Benedict XVI and entrusted to the Dicastery the task of preparing for the anniversary celebrations of the Declaration Gravissimum Educationis (50 years) and the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae (25 years), both of which fall in 2015. The aim is to give new stimulus to the Church’s involvement in the field of education.
There have been two principal events that have taken place in these subsequent years of preparation. The first was a seminar that took place in June 2012, with the participation of experts from all over the world. The second was the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation’s Members, which met in February 2014.
The indications that emerged in these two meetings are reflected in this Instrumentum Laboris, “Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion”. The text recalls the essential reference-points of both aforementioned documents, the fundamental characteristics of Catholic schools and universities, going on to describe the challenges to which Catholic educational institutions are called to respond, with the development of their own specific mission.
In the years following the Second Vatican Council, Papal Magisterium has repeatedly insisted on the importance of education in general, as well as on the contribution that the Christian community is called to offer education. The Congregation for Catholic Education, too, has frequently addressed this theme in its documents. Therefore, the anniversaries of 2015 are a suitable and invaluable opportunity for taking on board the recommendations of the Magisterium and sketching out guidelines for the coming decades.
The Instrumentum Laboris has been prepared for just such a purpose. It has been translated into various languages, and is addressed principally to Bishops’ Conferences, to the Union of Superiors General and to the International Union of Female Superiors General of Religious Congregations. The text is also addressed to national and international associations of teachers, parents, students and former students, as well as associations of those who run schools and universities. Finally, the Instrumentum Laboris is also addressed to Christian communities, so that they may reflect on the importance of Catholic education in the context of the New Evangelization. The text can be used to effect a pastoral evaluation of this area of the Church’s apostolate; and it can also be used to promote various activities for updating and forming those who work in Catholic schools and universities.
The Instrumentum laboris can be download here:
WORD 200 kb: English | Español | Français | Português | Italiano
The Instrumentum Laboris concludes with a questionnaire. We invite everyone to give their answers, so as to provide the Congregation for Catholic Education with indications, suggestions and proposals that will be considered with a view to the events that are being planned, in particular the Global Convention that will take place in Rome on 18-21 November 2015. To that end, answers to the questionnaire must be sent to the Dicastery no later than 31 July 2014 (to: [email protected]).
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Zenon Cardinal Grocholewski, Prefect
Vatican City, 7 April 2014