New Intercom (No. 153)
Global Compact on Education
Pope Francis, in his Encyclical Laudato Si’, invited everyone to cooperate in caring for our common home and to confront together the challenges that we face.
A few years later, he has renewed his invitation “to dialogue on how we are shaping the future of our planet and the need to employ the talents of all, since all change requires an educational process aimed at developing a new universal solidarity and a more welcoming society”.
To this end, an event was promoted on 14 May 2020, via videoconference, on the theme Reinventing the Global Compact on Education, to “rekindle our dedication for and with young people, renewing our passion for a more open and inclusive education, including patient listening, constructive dialogue and better mutual understanding […] to form mature individuals capable of overcoming division and antagonism, and to restore the fabric of relationships for the sake of a more fraternal humanity”.
Inspired by the Pope’s message, the Brothers of the Christian Schools have also asked themselves about the future of education, producing an action plan for education 2022-2023 with the aim of promoting the implementation of this vision also in Lasallian educational ministries.
The new issue of Intercom 153 tells precisely about the Global Compact on Education with the purpose of working for a more human, fraternal, solidarity-based and sustainable world, involving the entire educational community in drawing up joint projects, with schools and institutions wishing to promote the Compact, both nationally and internationally.
“When one considers there are more than two hundred and sixty million children and young people who are still out-of-school today and that more than six hundred million do not even have the minimum proficiencies in reading or mathematics, we realize we really do not have much choice or time,” writes Brother Robert Schieler, Superior General, in the introduction to this issue of Intercom.
As Lasallian Family, let us respond by bringing the richness of our founding charism, which is ‘to provide a quality human and Christian education’ and by offering our most original characteristic: ‘to seek appropriate responses to educational needs’, reaffirms Brother Gustavo Ramirez Barba, General Councillor for Association and the Lasallian Educational Mission.
All that remains is to wish you…. Happy reading and good reflection!