The Jubilee, “an event with strong meanings not only religious, but also cultural and social”, is “synonymous with reconciliation, peace, human dignity, justice and safeguarding of creation”, and the theme of hope that accompanies it “stirs up in a special way the world of education and school, places where consciences and life orientations take shape and the foundations of future responsibilities are laid”.
This is what the presidency of the Italian Episcopal Conference underlines in the message drawn up on the occasion of the decision to use, in the 2025/26 school year, the teaching of the Catholic religion, a subject “thanks to which important ethical and cultural elements enter into the educational itinerary, together with the questions of meaning that accompany individual growth and life in the world”, and this “in a climate of respect and freedom, of deepening and constructive dialogue”.
Witnesses of hope
When one asks “What hope gives meaning to existence”, “Where is it possible to recognise and find reasons for life and hope” and how to promote what Pope Francis calls “a social alliance for hope, which is inclusive and not ideological and works for a future marked by the smiles of so many children”, one is faced with “questions to which the school cannot be alien and to which the teaching of the Catholic religion gives rise”, observe the Italian bishops.
And in the face of the “deepest questions” of students, religion teachers, combining “professional competence with attention to each student,” can be defined as “witnesses of hope,” underlines the presidency of the Italian Episcopal Conference.
To teachers, among others, the episcopate expresses its gratitude, in particular because “while offering the reasons for the hope that moves them, they accompany those who grow to discover the beauty and meaning of life, without giving in to the temptations of individualism and resignation, which suffocate the heart and extinguish dreams.”
Finally, looking to the path that remains to be taken in this Holy Year, the episcopate hopes that it will help “recover the confidence and courage to open families, schools and all communities to new horizons of collaboration and hope.”
