Catholic education, which has changed over the centuries, must continue to evolve to help young people face the challenges not only of technology but of confusion about the meaning and purpose of life, Pope Leo XIV said.
“I call upon all educational institutions to inaugurate a new season that speaks to the hearts of the younger generations, reuniting knowledge and meaning, competence and responsibility, faith and life,” he wrote in an apostolic letter.
Titled Disegnare Nuove Mappe Di Speranza” (“Drawing New Maps of Hope”), the letter was issued only in Italian 28 October. It marked the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Catholic Education.
In the letter, Pope Leo formally declared St John Henry Newman “patron of the church’s educational mission alongside St Thomas Aquinas.”
The pope was scheduled to formally proclaim St Newman a “doctor of the church” 1 November in recognition of his contribution to “the renewal of theology and to the understanding of the development of Christian doctrine.”
