Catholic universities ‘must engage’

Pope Francis has urged Catholic universities and secondary schools not to “isolate themselves from the world, but to enter with courage into the areopagus of today’s cultures”, writes Robert Mickens.

In an address to the Congregation for Catholic Education on 13 February he said teachers at such Catholic institutions were called to fully respect the individual freedom of their students – “many” of whom are “non-Christians or even non-believers” – while offering them the Christian vision of “Jesus Christ as the meaning of life, the cosmos and history”.

He said providing a good Catholic education was “one of the most important challenges” for the Church today, given the need for a new evangelisation.

The Pope said Catholic educators needed to adopt a programme of “challenge and dialogue, with a courageous and innovative fidelity that brings the Catholic identity to an encounter with the various ‘souls’ of multicultural society”.