With a video message, Pope Francis relaunched the Global Compact on Education, which was supposed to be held on May 14 and was postponed due to the health emergency that the world is currently experiencing. Adhering to the educational pact means committing to rebuild relationships at all levels, starting from the closest, the family, the village, and then expanding to the city, the world and nature.
And precisely, Pope Francis invites us to commit ourselves personally and together:
- First, to make human persons in their value and dignity the centre of every educational programme, both formal and informal, in order to foster their distinctiveness, beauty and uniqueness, and their capacity for relationship with others and with the world around them, while at the same time teaching them to reject lifestyles that encourage the spread of the throwaway culture.
- Second, to listen to the voices of children and young people to whom we pass on values and knowledge, in order to build together a future of justice, peace and a dignified life for every person.
- Third, to encourage the full participation of girls and young women in education.
- Fourth, to see in the family the first and essential place of education.
- Fifth, to educate and be educated on the need for acceptance and in particular openness to the most vulnerable and marginalized.
- Sixth, to be committed to finding new ways of understanding the economy, politics, growth and progress that can truly stand at the service of the human person and the entire human family, within the context of an integral ecology.
- Seventh, to safeguard and cultivate our common home, protecting it from the exploitation of its resources, and to adopt a more sober lifestyle marked by the use of renewable energy sources and respect for the natural and human environment, in accordance with the principles of subsidiarity, solidarity and a circular economy
