From the Website of Vatican
links https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-01/pope-francis-bullying-an-attitude-that-leads-to-warfare.html
Pope to educators: Amid daily struggles, keep eyes on Christ
Pope
Francis invites Catholic educators to fix their gaze on Jesus at all
times to help them in their daily tasks and struggles, and warns against
bullying in schools, suggesting this attitude is one which leads to
warfare.
"How can
we avoid losing hope and keep nourishing it every day? By keeping our
gaze fixed on Jesus, the teacher and companion on our journey," Pope
Francis told educators in the Vatican on Saturday.
The Holy
Father received the delegation for the 80th anniversary of the Italian
Catholic Teachers Association and of the Union of Italian Catholic
Teachers, Principals, Educators, and Trainers, as well as for the 50th
anniversary of the Association of Parents of Catholic Schools.
"This is a wonderful occasion to celebrate together, to reflect on your history, and to look towards the future," he said.
God's pedagogy
Recalling that their meeting takes place during the liturgical season of Christmas, "a time that reveals God's pedagogy."
Pope
Francis therefore asked those gathered: "What is His 'educational
method?,'" responding, "It is one of closeness, compassion, and
tenderness," noting these three qualities are essential. "Like a teacher
who enters the world of their students," the Pope said, "God chose to
live among people, teaching through the language of life and love."
Moreover,
God’s pedagogy, he added, calls us live in communion with Him and
others "as part of a universal fraternity project," where "the family
has a central and irreplaceable role."
'The family!'
Reflecting
on the 'the family,' the Pope shared an anecdote someone told him after
the individual had gone out to lunch one Sunday. At the table next to
the man at the restaurant, Pope Francis recalled, was a family, "father,
mother, son, and daughter—all glued to their cell phones, not talking
to each other."
This man, the Pope noted, felt something was
wrong and approached them, saying: 'You are a family, why don’t you talk
to each other instead of staring at your phones?' The Pope said they
just brushed him off and continued.
"Please, in families, let’s talk!" Pope Francis insisted, stressing, "A family is about dialogue, and dialogue helps us grow."
“Please, in families, let’s talk!”
Jubilee
The
Holy Father also remembered today's encounter takes place at the
beginning of the Jubilee journey, and that the Holy Year "has much to
say" to the world of education and schools.
Recalling the
Jubilee's focus on 'Pilgrims of Hope,' the Pope stressed that a good
teacher is a man or woman "of hope" because they dedicate themselves
with trust and patience to a project of human growth.
"Their
hope is not naive," he stressed, noting, "it is rooted in reality and
sustained by the conviction that every educational effort has value and
that every person has dignity and a vocation worthy of being
cultivated."
'It breaks my heart'
"It breaks my heart when I
see children who are not being educated, forced to work, exploited,
scavenging for food or items to sell in trash heaps," he continued,
saying it's "heartbreaking" and "there are so many of these children!"
In
the midst of all of this, the Pope said, hope and keeping one's eyes
focused on Jesus is the solution for getting through day-to-day
difficulties and stresses, for the Lord is at our side and our
'companion.'
Cultivate peace, never bullying
The Holy Father
commended any educational efforts at schools to promote peace, noting
that 'imagining peace" lays the foundations for "a more just and
fraternal world" through "every subject taught and through the
creativity of children and young people."
"But if, at school,"
he warned, "you wage war among yourselves or engage in bullying, you are
preparing for war, not for peace."
“If, at school you wage war among yourselves or engage in bullying, you are preparing for war, not for peace”
Pact among associations
In
the midst of various challenges, Pope Francis called for the formation
of a kind of “pact among associations” to better "represent the face of
the Church in schools and for schools."
Telling them to focus on
"the present" of schools, which "is also the future of society," he
urged those gathered to think both of the young teachers "taking their
first steps" and "the families who often feel alone in their educational
responsibilities," and to give them genuine support.
Pope
Francis concluded by imparting his Apostolic Blessing, reminding them
that hope never disappoints, and once again, warning against bullying.
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