Pope Leo XIV visited Universidade Católica during World Youth Day. The visit inspired his Apostolic Letter on Education
On 3 August 2023, World Youth Day brought Pope Francis to the Universidade Católica in Lisbon for a conversation with young university students.
The same event also brought then Bishop Robert Francis Prevost, now Leo XVI, to Lisbon and to the Universidade Católica. And the trip seems to have inspired the Pope, who now recalled the words of his predecessor on that occasion.
In the Apostolic Letter ‘Drawing New Maps of Hope’ of 27 October, which marked the 60th anniversary of the conciliar Declaration Gravissimum educationis and was published during the Jubilee of the World of Education, Pope Leo XIV recalls the idea of Christian education as a choreography.
"Addressing university students at World Youth Day in Lisbon, my late predecessor, Pope Francis, said: Be protagonists of a new choreography that puts the human person at the centre; be choreographers of the dance of life", writes the Holy Father.
In the Apostolic Letter, Leo XIV addresses the educational community and educational institutions, reaffirming education as a path of hope and trust and as a response to current challenges. Among other messages, he evokes the right of all to education, the importance of the family in the educational process, the responsibility of educators and the relevance of their scientific, pedagogical, cultural and spiritual training, as well as the role of educational constellations.
"We need an education that involves the mind, the heart and the hands; new habits, community styles, virtuous practices", says the Pope.
The Supreme Pontiff also points to the growing presence of artificial intelligence and digital and technological environments that must be oriented towards the protection of dignity, justice and work, governed by criteria of public ethics and participation, always putting the person before the algorithm. "No algorithm can replace what makes human education: poetry, irony, love, art, imagination, the joy of discovery and even education for error as an opportunity for growth", he stresses.
For the president of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Isabel Capeloa Gil, there are three ideas to highlight in this communication from the Pope dedicated to education and universities, particularly Catholic ones, which are essential for "the development of a society that wants to be balanced, humanistic, centred on the defence of human dignity, people's rights and contributing to their flourishing".
The first, according to the President – who also participated in the Jubilee of the Educational World in Rome and at the Vatican – is related to the mission of universities. "The university is evangelical in the sense of creating novelty, of making all things new. Our challenge is to read the signs of the times and, with these signs, to always be at the forefront of knowledge, transforming, advancing, innovating, not looking at the past with a nostalgia that frightens us, but looking to the future, using that past as something that moves us to do better", she explains.
The organisation and structure of universities are the focus of the second idea, based on the opinion expressed by Leo XIV in the Apostolic Letter that "they must be places where there are more tables and fewer chairs", that is, they must be spaces for collaboration, dialogue, and the search for common paths to challenges.
The third concerns students. "We must maintain the idea of university as a promise", she summarises. "Our mission is not to guide our actions based on skill profiles, but to educate people and train people who are oriented towards a promising future for our societies" argues Isabel Capeloa Gil.
