In this apostolic letter, the Pope Leo XIV He speaks of education as «an act of hope and a passion that is renewed because it manifests the promise we see in the future of humanity.» As he reminded us in his Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te, Education «has always been one of the highest expressions of Christian charity.» The world needs this form of hope.
In this context, the Holy Father asks educational communities to «disarm words, lift up their gaze, and guard their hearts.».
1.1. Designing new maps of hope. October 28, 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the conciliar Declaration. Most serious education on the extreme importance and relevance of education in human life. With that text, andThe Second Vatican Council reminded the Church that education is not an ancillary activity, but rather constitutes the very fabric of evangelization: it is the concrete way in which the Gospel becomes an educational gesture, a relationship, a culture. Today, in the face of rapid changes and disorienting uncertainties, that legacy shows surprising solidity.
Where educational communities allow themselves to be guided by the word of Christ, they do not retreat, but rather relaunch themselves; they do not build walls, but rather bridges. They respond creatively, opening up new possibilities for the transmission of knowledge and meaning in schools, universities, vocational and civic training, school and youth ministry, and research, because the Gospel does not grow old, but «makes all things new» (Ap. 21.5). Each generation hears it as something new that regenerates. Each generation is responsible for the Gospel and for discovering its seminal and multiplying power.
1.2. We live in a complex, fragmented, and digitized educational environment. That is precisely why it is wise to pause and take another look at the «cosmology of paideia Christian»: a vision that, over the centuries, has been able to renew itself and positively inspire all the multifaceted aspects of education. Since its origins, the Gospel has generated «educational constellations»: experiences that are both humble and powerful, capable of reading the signs of the times, of safeguarding the unity between faith and reason, between thought and life, between knowledge and justice. They have been, in the storm, an anchor of salvation; and in the calm, a sail unfurled. A beacon in the night to guide navigation.
1.3. The Declaration Most serious education has not lost its power. Since its reception, a constellation of works and charisms has been born that still guides the way today: schools and universities, movements and institutes, lay associations, religious congregations, and national and international networks. Together, these living bodies have consolidated a spiritual and pedagogical heritage capable of traversing the 21st century and responding to the most pressing challenges. This heritage is not immutable: it is a compass that continues to point the way and speak of the beauty of the journey. Today's expectations are no less than the many that the Church faced sixty years ago.
Rather, they have expanded and become more complex. Faced with the many millions of children in the world who still do not have access to primary education, how can we fail to act? Faced with the dramatic educational emergencies caused by wars, migrations, inequalities, and various forms of poverty, how can we not feel the urgency to renew our commitment? Education—as I recalled in my Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te– «has always been one of the highest expressions of Christian charity» [1]. The world needs this form of hope.
2.1. The history of Catholic education is the history of the Spirit in action. The Church, «mother and teacher» [2], not through supremacy, but through service: she generates faith and accompanies the growth of freedom, taking on the mission of the Divine Teacher so that all may «have life and have it in abundance» ( Jn 10:10). Successive educational styles have presented a vision of human beings as images of God, called to truth and goodness, and a pluralism of methods at the service of this calling. Educational charisms are not rigid formulas: they are original responses to the needs of each era.
2.2. In the early centuries, the Desert Fathers taught wisdom through parables and apothegms; they rediscovered the path to the essential, to discipline of speech and guarding of the heart; they transmitted a pedagogy of the gaze that recognizes God everywhere. St. Augustine, grafting biblical wisdom onto the Greco-Roman tradition, understood that the authentic teacher awakens the desire for truth, educates freedom to read the signs and listen to the inner voice. Monasticism has carried on this tradition in the most inaccessible places, where for decades the classical works have been studied, commented on, and taught, so that without this silent work in the service of culture, many masterpieces would not have survived to this day.
«The first universities arose »from the heart of the Church,« and from their origins they revealed themselves to be »an incomparable center of creativity and dissemination of knowledge for the good of humanity." In their classrooms, speculative thought found in the mediation of the mendicant orders the possibility of structuring itself solidly and reaching the frontiers of science. Quite a few religious congregations took their first steps in these fields of knowledge, enriching education in a pedagogically innovative and socially visionary way.
2.3. Education has been expressed in many ways. In the Ratio Studiorum, the richness of the school tradition merges with Ignatian spirituality, adapting a curriculum that is as articulate as it is interdisciplinary and open to experimentation. In 17th-century Rome, St. Joseph Calasanz opened free schools for the poor, sensing that literacy and numeracy are a matter of dignity rather than competence. In France, Saint John Baptist de La Salle, «aware of the injustice of excluding the children of workers and peasants from the educational system» [4], founded the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
At the beginning of the 19th century, also in France, Saint Marcellin Champagnat devoted himself «with all his heart, at a time when access to education was still a privilege of the few, to the mission of educating and evangelizing children and young people» [5]. Similarly, Saint John Bosco, with his «preventive method,» transformed discipline into reasonableness and closeness. Courageous women, such as Vicenta María López y Vicuña, Francesca Cabrini, Giuseppina Bakhita, Maria Montessori, Katharine Drexel, and Elizabeth Ann Seton, opened paths for girls, migrants, and the least among us. I reiterate what I clearly stated in Dilexi te: «The education of the poor, for the Christian faith, is not a favor, but a duty» [6]. This genealogy of concreteness attests that, in the Church, pedagogy is never disembodied theory, but flesh, passion, and history.
3.1. Christian education is a collaborative effort: no one educates alone. The educational community is a «we» in which teachers, students, families, administrative and service staff, pastors, and civil society come together to generate life [7]. This «we» prevents the water from stagnating in the swamp of «it has always been done this way» and forces it to flow, to nourish, to irrigate. The foundation remains the same: the person, image of God (Genesis 1:26), capable of truth and relationship. Therefore, the question of the relationship between faith and reason is not an optional chapter: «religious truth is not only a part, but a condition of general knowledge» [8].
These words of St. John Henry Newman—whom, in the context of this Jubilee of the World of Education, I have the great joy of declaring co-sponsor of the Church's educational mission together with St. Thomas Aquinas—are an invitation to renew our commitment to knowledge that is as intellectually responsible and rigorous as it is deeply human. And we must also be careful not to fall into the enlightenment of a fides which is exclusively opposed to the ratio.
It is necessary to emerge from the shallows by regaining an empathetic and open vision in order to better understand how human beings are understood today, so as to develop and deepen their teaching. That is why desire and the heart must not be separated from knowledge: it would mean breaking the person. Catholic universities and schools are places where questions are not silenced and doubt is not prohibited, but rather accompanied. There, the heart dialogues with the heart, and the method is that of listening that recognizes the other as a good, not as a threat. Heart speaks to heart was the cardinal motto of St. John Henry Newman, taken from a letter by St. Francis de Sales: «Sincerity of heart, not abundance of words, touches the hearts of human beings.».
3.2. Educating is an act of hope and a passion that is renewed because it manifests the promise we see in the future of humanity [9]. The specificity, depth, and breadth of educational action is that work, as mysterious as it is real, of «making the self flourish [...] is caring for the soul,» as we read in Plato's Apology of Socrates (30a-b). It is a «profession of promises»: it promises time, trust, competence; it promises justice and mercy, it promises the value of truth and the balm of consolation.
Educating is a task of love that is passed down from generation to generation, mending the torn fabric of relationships and restoring the weight of promise to words: «Every human being is capable of truth, yet the path is much more bearable when we move forward with the help of others» [10]. Truth is sought in community.
4.1. The conciliar declaration Most serious education It reaffirms everyone's right to education and points to the family as the first school of humanity. The ecclesial community is called to support environments that integrate faith and culture, respect the dignity of all, and engage in dialogue with society. The document warns against reducing education to functional training or an economic tool: a person is not a «skills profile,» not reducible to a predictable algorithm, but a face, a story, a vocation.
4.2. Christian education encompasses the whole person: spiritual, intellectual, emotional, social, and physical. It does not pit manual skills against theory, science against humanism, or technique against conscience. Instead, it calls for professionalism to be imbued with ethics, and for ethics not to be an abstract word, but a daily practice. Education does not measure its value solely in terms of efficiency: it measures it in terms of dignity, justice, and the capacity to serve the common good. This comprehensive anthropological vision must remain the central focus of Catholic pedagogy. Following the thinking of St. John Henry Newman, it opposes a purely mercantilist approach that often forces education today to be measured in terms of functionality and practical utility [11].
4.3. These principles are not memories of the past. They are fixed stars. They say that truth is sought together; that freedom is not a whim, but a response; that authority is not domination, but service. In the educational context, one should not «raise the banner of possession of the truth, neither in the analysis of problems, nor in their resolution» [12]. Instead, «it is more important to know how to approach than to give a hasty answer as to why something has happened or how to overcome it. The goal is to learn to face problems, which are always different, because each generation is new, with new challenges, new dreams, new questions» [13]. Catholic education has the task of rebuilding trust in a world marked by conflict and fear, reminding us that we are children and not orphans: from this awareness, fraternity is born.
5.2. Catholic schools are environments where faith, culture, and life intertwine. They are not simply institutions, but living environments where the Christian vision permeates every discipline and every interaction. Educators are called to a responsibility that goes beyond their employment contract: their testimony is as valuable as their lessons. That is why training of teachers—scientific, pedagogical, cultural, and spiritual—is decisive. In sharing a common educational mission, a common path of formation is also necessary, «initial and ongoing, capable of grasping the educational challenges of the present moment and providing the most effective tools to face them [...].
5.1. Putting the person at the center means educating in the long view of Abraham (Genesis 15:5): helping them discover the meaning of life, inalienable dignity, and responsibility toward others. Education is not only the transmission of content, but also the learning of virtues. It forms citizens capable of serving and believers capable of bearing witness, men and women who are freer and no longer alone. And the training It cannot be improvised. I fondly remember the years I spent in the beloved Diocese of Chiclayo, visiting the Catholic University of San Toribio de Mogrovejo, and the opportunities I had to address the academic community, saying: «No one is born a professional; every university career is built step by step, book by book, year after year, sacrifice after sacrifice.».
This implies that educators must be open to learning and developing their knowledge, to renewing and updating their methodologies, but also to spiritual and religious formation and sharing [15]. Technical updates are not enough: it is necessary to nurture a heart that listens, a gaze that encourages, and an intelligence that discerns.
5.3. The family remains the primary place of education. The schools Catholic schools collaborate with parents, they do not replace them, because «the duty of education, especially religious education, belongs to you before anyone else» [16]. The educational alliance requires intentionality, listening, and shared responsibility. It is built with shared processes, tools, and verifications. It is an effort and a blessing: when it works, it inspires confidence; when it is lacking, everything becomes more fragile.
6.1. Already the Most serious education recognized the great importance of the principle of subsidiarity and the fact that circumstances vary according to different local ecclesial contexts. However, the Second Vatican Council articulated the right to education and its fundamental principles as universally valid. It emphasized the responsibilities that fall on both parents themselves and the State.
He considered it a «sacred right» to offer education that would enable students to «evaluate moral values with a clear conscience» [17] and called on civil authorities to respect that right. He also warned against subordinating education to the labor market and to the often harsh and inhuman logic of finance.
6.2. Christian education is presented 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 center; be choreographers of the dance of life.» [18].
Forming the whole person means avoiding compartmentalization. True faith is not an added «subject,» but rather the breath that oxygenates all other subjects. Thus, Catholic education becomes leaven in the human community: it generates reciprocity, overcomes reductionism, and opens the way to social responsibility. The task today is to dare to embrace an integral humanism that addresses the questions of our time without losing sight of the source.
7.1. Christian anthropology is the basis of an educational approach that promotes respect, personalized support, discernment, and the development of all human dimensions. Among these, spiritual inspiration is not secondary, but is realized and strengthened through contemplation of Creation.
This aspect is not new in Christian philosophical and theological tradition, where the study of nature also had the purpose of demonstrating the traces of God (vestiges of God) in our world. In the Collations in Hexaemeron, St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio writes that «the whole world is a shadow, a path, a footprint.» It is the book written from outside (Ezekiel 2:9), because in every creature there is a reflection of the divine model, but mixed with darkness. The world is, therefore, a path similar to opacity mixed with light; in that sense, it is a path.
Just as a ray of light entering through a window is colored according to the different colors of the different parts of the glass, the divine ray is reflected differently in each creature and acquires different properties» [19]. This also applies to the plasticity of teaching calibrated according to different characters, which in any case converge in the beauty of Creation and its safeguarding. And it requires educational projects that are «interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary, exercised with wisdom and creativity» [20].
7.2. Forgetting our common humanity has led to divisions and violence; and when the earth suffers, the poor suffer most. Catholic education cannot remain silent: it must unite social justice and environmental justice, promote sobriety and sustainable lifestyles, and form consciences capable of choosing not only what is convenient, but what is just. Every small gesture—avoiding waste, choosing responsibly, defending the common good—is cultural and moral literacy.
7.3. Ecological responsibility is not limited to technical data. These are necessary, but not sufficient. We need an education that involves the mind, the heart, and the hands; new habits, community styles, virtuous practices. Peace is not the absence of conflict: it is a gentle force that rejects violence. An education for peace that is «unarmed and disarming» [21] teaches us to lay down the weapons of aggressive words and judgmental looks, and to learn the language of mercy and reconciled justice.
8. An educational constellation
8.1. I use the term «constellation» because the Catholic educational world is a living, pluralistic network: parish schools and colleges, universities and higher education institutions, vocational training centers, movements, digital platforms, learning initiatives.-school, university, and cultural ministries and pastoral care. Each «star» has its own brilliance, but together they chart a course. Where there was rivalry in the past, today we ask institutions to come together: unity is our most prophetic strength.
8.2. Methodological and structural differences are not burdens, but resources. The plurality of charisms, if well coordinated, forms a coherent and fruitful picture. In an interconnected world, the game is played on two boards: the local and the global. We need exchanges of teachers and students, joint projects between continents, mutual recognition of good practices, and missionary and academic cooperation. The future compels us to learn to collaborate more and grow together.
8.3. Constellations reflect their own light in an infinite universe. Like a kaleidoscope, their colors intertwine, creating new chromatic variations. The same is true in the realm of Catholic educational institutions, which are open to encountering and listening to civil society, political and administrative authorities, as well as representatives of the productive sectors and labor categories.
You are invited to collaborate even more actively with them in order to share and improve educational itineraries, so that theory is supported by experience and practice. History also teaches us that our institutions welcome students and families who are non-believers or of other religions, but who desire a truly human education. For this reason, as is already the case, we must continue to promote participatory educational communities, in which lay people, religious, families, and students share responsibility for the educational mission together with public and private institutions.
9.1. Sixty years ago, the Most serious education It ushered in an era of trust: it encouraged the updating of methods and languages. Today, this trust is measured against the digital environment. Technologies must serve people, not replace them; they must enrich the learning process, not impoverish relationships and communities. A Catholic university or school without vision runs the risk of falling into soulless “efficiency,” into the standardization of knowledge, which then becomes spiritual impoverishment.
9.2. To inhabit these spaces, pastoral creativity is needed: strengthening teacher training, including in the digital sphere; valuing active teaching methods; promoting learning.-service and responsible citizenship; avoid any technophobia. Our attitude toward technology can never be hostile, because «technological progress is part of God's plan for creation.».
But it requires discernment in instructional design, assessment, platforms, data protection, and equitable access. In any case, no algorithm can replace what makes education human: poetry, irony, love, art, imagination, the joy of discovery, and even learning from mistakes as an opportunity for growth.
9.3. The key point is not the technology itself, but how we use it. Artificial intelligence and digital environments must be geared toward protecting dignity, justice, and work; they must be governed by criteria of public ethics and participation; they must be accompanied by theological and philosophical reflection that is up to the task.
Catholic universities have a decisive task: to offer «diaconia of culture,» fewer lectures and more tables where people can sit together, without unnecessary hierarchies, to touch the wounds of history and seek, in the Spirit, wisdom that springs from the lives of peoples.
10. The North Star of the education pact
10.1. Among the stars that guide the way is the Global Education Compact. I gratefully accept this prophetic legacy entrusted to us by Pope Francis. It is an invitation to form an alliance and a network to educate in universal fraternity.
His seven paths continue to be our foundation: putting people at the center; listening to children and young people; promoting the dignity and full participation of women; recognizing the family as the primary educator; being open to welcoming and inclusion; renewing the economy and politics in the service of human beings; caring for our common home. These «stars» have inspired schools, universities, and educational communities around the world, generating concrete processes of humanization.
10.2. Sixty years after the Most serious education Five years after the Compact, history challenges us with renewed urgency. Rapid and profound changes expose children, adolescents, and young people to unprecedented vulnerabilities. It is not enough to preserve: we must relaunch.
I ask all educational institutions to usher in a new era that speaks to the hearts of the younger generations, rebuilding knowledge and meaning, competence and responsibility, faith and life. The Pact is part of a broader Global Educational Constellation: charisms and institutions, although different, form a unified and luminous design that guides our steps in the darkness of the present time.
10.3. To the seven paths, I add three priorities. The first concerns the inner life: young people seek depth; they need spaces for silence, discernment, dialogue with their conscience and with God. The second concerns the human digital: let us educate in the wise use of technologies and AI, placing the person before the algorithm and harmonizing technical, emotional, social, spiritual, and ecological intelligences. The third concerns disarmed and disarming peace: we educate in nonviolent languages, in reconciliation, in bridges and not walls; «Blessed are the peacemakers» (Mt 5.9) becomes the method and content of learning.
10.4. We are aware that the Catholic educational network has a unique reach. It is a constellation that spans all continents, with a particular presence in low-income areas: a concrete promise of educational mobility and social justice [23]. This constellation demands quality and courage: quality in pedagogical planning, in teacher training, in governance; courage to guarantee access to the poorest, to support fragile families, to promote scholarships and inclusive policies.
Evangelical gratuitousness is not rhetoric: it is a style of relationship, a method, and a goal. Where access to education remains a privilege, the Church must open doors and invent new paths, because «losing the poor» is equivalent to losing the school itself. This also applies to universities: an inclusive outlook and care for the heart save us from standardization; a spirit of service rekindles imagination and revives love.
11. New maps of hope
11.1. On the sixtieth anniversary of the Most serious education, The Church celebrates a rich educational history, but it also faces the urgent need to update its proposals in light of the signs of the times. The educational constellations Catholic communities are an inspiring example of how tradition and the future can be intertwined without contradiction: a living tradition that extends into new forms of presence and service. Constellations are not reduced to neutral, flattened concatenations of different experiences.
Instead of chains, we dare to think of constellations, in their intertwining full of wonder and awakening. In them lies the ability to navigate challenges with hope, but also with courageous reflection, without losing fidelity to the Gospel. We are aware of the difficulties: hyper-digitalization can fragment attention; the crisis of relationships can wound the psyche; social insecurity and inequalities can extinguish desire.
However, it is precisely here that Catholic education can be a beacon: not a nostalgic refuge, but a laboratory for discernment, pedagogical innovation, and prophetic witness. Designing new maps of hope: this is the urgency of the mandate.
11.2. I ask educational communities: take apart words, lift up your gaze, guard your hearts. Take apart words, because education does not advance through controversy, but through gentleness that listens. Lift up your gaze. As God said to Abraham: «Look up at the sky and count the stars» ( Genesis 15.5): know how to ask yourselves where you are going and why. Guard your hearts: relationships come before opinions, people before programs.
Do not waste time and opportunities: «to quote an Augustinian expression: our present is an intuition, a time that we live and that we must take advantage of before it slips through our fingers» [24]. In conclusion, dear brothers and sisters, I make my own the exhortation of the Apostle Paul: «You must shine like stars in the world, holding high the word of life» (Phil 2:15-16).
This is essential for moving forward together toward a future full of Maps of hope.
In conclusion, dear brothers and sisters, I echo the exhortation of the Apostle Paul: «You must shine like stars in the world, holding high the word of life» (Phil 2:15-16).
11.3. I entrust this journey to the Virgin Mary, Sedes Sapientiae, and to all the holy educators. I ask pastors, consecrated persons, lay people, those responsible for institutions, teachers, and students: be servants of the world of education, choreographers of hope, tireless seekers of wisdom, credible creators of expressions of beauty.
Fewer labels, more stories; fewer sterile contrasts, more harmony in the Spirit. Then our constellation will not only shine, but also guide us toward the truth that sets us free (cf. Jn 8:32), toward the fraternity that consolidates justice (cf. Mt 23:8), toward the hope that does not disappoint (cf. Rm 5, 5).
St. Peter's Basilica, October 27, 2025. Eve of the 60th anniversary.
LEÓN PP. XIV
[1] LEON XIV, Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te (October 4, 2025), no. 68.
[2] Cf. JOHN XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mother and Teacher (May 15, 1961).
[3] JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Constitution From the Heart of the Church (August 15, 1990), no. 1.
[4] LEÓN XIV, Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te (October 4, 2025), no. 69.
[5] LEON XIV, Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te (October 4, 2025), no. 70.
[6] LEON XIV, Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te (October 4, 2025), no. 72.
[7] CONGREGATION FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION, Instruction «The identity of the Catholic school for a culture of dialogue»(January 25, 2022), no. 32.
[8] JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, The idea of the University (2005), p. 76.
[9] Cf. CONGREGATION FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION, Instrumentum laboris Educating today and tomorrow. A passion that is renewed (April 7, 2014), Introduction.
[10] His Excellency Monsignor ROBERT F. PREVOST, O.S.A., Homily at the Catholic University of Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo (2018).
[11] See JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, Writings on the University (2001).
[12] LEÓN XIV, Audience with the members of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation (May 17, 2025).
[13] Ibid.
[14] His Excellency ROBERT F. PREVOST, O.S.A., Homily at the Catholic University of Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo (2018).
[15] CONGREGATION FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION, Circular Letter Educating together in Catholic schools (September 8, 2007), no. 20.
[16] SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Joy and Hope (June 29, 1966), no. 48.
[17] SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Declaration Most serious education (October 28, 1965), no. 1.
[18] POPE FRANCIS, Address to university students on the occasion of World Youth Day (August 3, 2023).
[19] Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Collations in Hexaemeron, XII, in Complete Works (ed. Peltier), Vivès, Paris, vol. IX (1867), pp. 87–88.
[20] POPE FRANCIS, Apostolic Constitution The joy of truth (December 8, 2017), no. 4c.
[21] LEÓN XIV, Greeting from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica after the election (May 8, 2025).
[22] CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH AND CONGREGATION FOR CULTURE AND EDUCATION, Note Old and new (January 28, 2025), no. 117.
[23] Cf. Statistical Yearbook of the Church (updated as of December 31, 2022).
[24] His Excellency ROBERT F. PREVOST, O.S.A., Message to the Catholic University of Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of its founding (2016).
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