On the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Latin American Federation of Jesuit Colleges, the Pope issued a video message, “May the school be a place of reception and open the door to the poor.”
(Vatican News Network)The Latin American Federation of Jesuit Colleges celebrated its 20th anniversary. On this occasion, Pope Francis published a video message in Spanish, hoping that schools in Latin America and the world would be an “open door” reception place, especially for the poor. By. The Pope pointed out that schools are “a place to heal the wounds of individuals and others”. The Latin American Federation of Jesuit Colleges is a regional education network established in 2001. In 2017, there were 135,000 students and more than 11,000 teachers and educators accompanied students.
It is for this mission that the Pope stated that he desires their schools to “be aware of this and be creative.” The Pope invited those who run the Jesuit school to follow the example of Jesus and “go out”. He said, “Jesus teaches us to connect with others and creation.” On this point, the Pope urged that “meeting the weak, the poor and the abandoned” is required.
The school that the pope longs to see is a “reception school”, a place that “can heal the wounds of oneself and others; a school with truly open doors, not just teaching. The school is also a place where the poor can enter. Can meet the poor”. For this reason, the school should not fall into selfish elitism, but should be a place to “learn to share and live out brotherly love with everyone, knowing that they are related to each other.”
In addition, the Pope also wished the schools of the Latin American Federation of Jesuit Colleges “teach to discern, recognize the signs of the times, see one’s own life, and regard it as a grace of thanks and sharing”. At the same time, one should be critical of “promoting shameful and unfair development, production and consumption patterns.”
At the end of the video message, the pope emphasized that their school should become an “apostolic and missionary school”, and he wished everyone continue to work together and “promote faith and justice.”
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