The Congregation for Catholic Education has organized for the first time a world congress entitled Educating Today and Tomorrow – A Renewed Passion with 2000 delegates responsible for Catholic education. It took place in Rome from 18th-21st November 2015. The conference was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration Gravissimum Educationis and the 25th anniversary of the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae.
The purpose of the conference was to direct the Catholic education into the new era through cooperation among different educational institutions. Catholic schools and universities, who act in the name of the Universal Church, are there for others. They propose the faith and offer pastoral accompaniment, while resolutely defending human dignity and diffusing knowledge. This is done in dialogue with others, allowing for mutual enrichment as we contemplate that light of hope and faith lies at the root of all education. One of the key challenges of the congress was to answer the issue of the new forms of poverty, which in particular reminds the Church of its primary mission. A similar point was made also by Pope Francis who addressed the participants in the Plenary Session saying: “The greatest failure of a teacher is to educate within boundaries – those of a selective culture, secure culture or within the boundaries of a rich social sector.”
Dr. Roman Globokar, the director of St. Stanislav’s Institution, who participated in the congress with three other Slovenes, accentuated that the meeting has been meaningful also for Slovenia, where Catholic education should be more often presented to wider public, which would enrich the educational and cultural section of Slovene society. A better understanding of Christian pedagogy, which opens up the individual in his freedom, thus enabling him to live his life to the fullest and contribute to the common good, would contribute to the same cause. In this perspective the continual formation of teachers is of utmost importance. According to Dr. Globokar they should be bearers of gospel’s authentic spirit and not only conveyers of knowledge.