Pope Francis presided, this Thursday afternoon, May 23, in the New Hall of the Synod, the concluding session of the first “International Meeting of Meaning”, promoted by Scholas Occurrentes and CAF Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean on 21 to May 23 in the Vatican.
The Pontiff responded to four questions posed by the participants that sparked reflections on his childhood, the importance of art, pain, and the reason for a “The University of Meaning”, among other topics.
In his interventions in Spanish, Francisco encouraged rediscovering the playful dimension of life, leaving room for caresses in moments of suffering: “When pain closes in on itself, it is poisonous, always. When pain allows itself to be helped, it allows itself to be accompanied, when pain opens itself to the help of another, it is fruitful. Open, always open.”
On August 15, Pope Francis established the University of Meaning, a public institution dedicated to addressing the global crisis of meaning. This university, autonomous and based in Vatican City State, will be administered by the Scholas Occurrentes International Educational Movement. In a statement issued by Scholas, the Pope stated: “Scholas, as a growing educational community, inaugurates the University of Meaning, welcoming students of all realities, languages, and creeds, so that no one is excluded, teaching not only facts but life itself”.
In the midst of the global pandemic and cultural crisis, the Pontiff said in a virtual message: “In the face of the current crisis of humanity, where culture has proven to have lost its vitality, I celebrate the opening of the University of Meaning by Scholas, an educational community that seeks the meaning of things”.
A welcoming and creative environment
Professor Mpho Tshivhase of the University of Pretoria, Professor Stefania Travagnin of the University of London, Professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne of Columbia University, and Professor Diane Moore of Harvard University, among others, agree on the importance of establish a global university community that responds to the need to rethink education, focusing on the uniqueness of the individual and on the community as an expression of diversity. A welcoming and creative place where everyone is welcome and participates. A unique university that, as Plato said, “has no specific place because it is everywhere.” A small seed that can become a big tree, whose roots are in the teachings of Pope Francis and in the experience of Scholas; a local and global, intercultural, interreligious and intergenerational university. Learning, according to Scholas Occurrentes, “is nourished by scientific and humanistic languages, art, technology and life experiences. This university nourishes the soul and distinguishes the useful from the indispensable; it helps keep the essential in perspective, since not only of bread the man lives”.
Projects for young people
Since 2013, Scholas, an International Educational Movement founded by Pope Francis, has carried out educational experiences with young people of different faiths and cultures on five continents, responding to the profound search for meaning of our times. In 2015, Scholas began a network with public and private universities to create Scholas Chairs within them, working together not only in extension, but also in teaching and research. Since 2017, these universities have shared their annual achievements and results at a global conference to strengthen this methodology and connect research with field work. In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Pope Francis invited Scholas to promote this significant initiative at the university level. Since 2021, the organization has brought together professors to develop the University of Meaning manifesto. Since 2022, Scholas has carried out meaning-building experiences with university professors and students in Latin America and Europe, who have received several academic awards and are part of the educational offer of various careers and universities. Since August 15, 2023, Senso University has been established by the Holy Father as a civil legal entity based in Vatican City State.
