The words of Pope Francis who lit the school: a universal message and beyond religions, between education, environment and artificial intelligence.
In the world of school, where every day we aim to sow questions and collect hopes, Pope Francis He left much more than speeches: he left signs. His simple and powerful words have often illuminated the journey of teachers, educators and students, returning dignity to a mission too often overshadowed.
The first sentence that comes to mind is as tender as it is disarming: “difficult students should not be discarded, they are rough diamonds that you have to have the courage to polish”. In that metaphor, Francesco He enclosed a pedagogy of the heart, capable of looking beyond the surface, of believing in those who no one believes anymore.
The words of Pope Francis on the school
They are not plastic words, because the gaze on the last has illuminated the pontificate of Bergoglio, from the name Francesco to the attention to the walls erected instead of the bridges, to the immigration, to the other, to the whole symbolism that he has always brought with his unadorned figure. And when he dedicated himself to the school he taught that education is not a filter to select the best, but a lens to discover the uniqueness of each.
But there is an aspect even stronger than his message: Pope Francis He talked to the school not as a part of the part, not only as a believer, but as a global leader. His words do not stop at the time of religion, nor to the education proposed by equal or Catholic inspiration, nor do they speak only to Christians. Francesco knew how to look at the school as a place where the future of whole humanity is played, regardless of faith, and has shown that education concerns everyone: believers, non -believers, rich, poor, citizens of the world. His provocations have always wanted to solicit civil consciousness before even religious.
His approach has always been human and at the same time prophetic. He invited the school not to be “a memory exam”, but a life laboratory. He asked the teachers to be “craftsmen of culture and hope”, and to the boys not to settle for being on “comfortable sofas” but to get up, act, build. And he said it looking at them in the eyes, talking to him as an essay that knows the world and is not afraid to dream of a new one with them.
Pope Francis on artificial intelligence
Still, Francesco’s message went beyond when he knew how to launch strong provocations also on the great challenges of our time: artificial intelligence and the environment. Faced with the advance of technologies, he did not show fear, but asked for critical sense and responsibility. He recalled that AI cannot replace consciousness, empathy, free thought and the passage of the encyclical Dilexit nosrecently rested also by Chiara Valerio on social media, it does this: “The algorithm at work in the digital world shows that our thoughts and decisions of our will are much more” standard “than we might think. They are easily predictable and manipulable. Not so the heart ». A few words of a handful of months ago to remember that the school task is not teaching to use machines, but to remain human.
Pope Francis on the environment
On the environment, then, his message was revolutionary. With the Laudato yes He laid the foundations of a new full ecology, asking the school to educate a planetary citizenship, where the care of the earth is intertwined with social justice. He told young people that “you are not the future, you are the present” and that they have the right – and the duty – to raise the voice for a more just world.
In a often confused time, Francesco offered a compass to the school: to train thinking heads and passionate hearts. He asked to “do not tame dreams”, but to remain restless, creative, free. And then today, more than ever, his invitation resounds strong: «Educating is an act of love. It is to give life ». That every school – and every person who is part of it – can collect this challenge and transform it into a “us” who holds and builds.
