Rome (Italy). On 13 November 2024 in Rome, at the Aula Magna John Paul II of the Pontifical Faculty of Education Science «Auxilium» – in the presence of students and teachers, of Mother Chiara Cazzuola, Superior General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and Grand Chancellor; Sister Ena Veralís Bolaños, Councilor for the Administration; Sister Ruth del Pilar Mora, Councilor for the Missions; and the Superior of the Preprovince, Sister Jessica Salvaña – The academic year 2024/2025 has officially begun.
The academic act was opened by the Eucharistic Celebration, presided by Fr. Andrea Bozzolo, Rector of the Pontifical Salesian University, concelebrated by other priests.
In the homily of the Holy Spirit’s votive Mass, commenting on the readings, he said, “The whole universe is involved in this movement of waiting for adoption to our authentic condition, that of children. This is why Paul says that, in addition to the groaning of creation, we also groan inwardly waiting for adoption (Rom 8:22-27). And it is precisely the Holy Spirit who arouses within us this expectation, this longing.
We think how this is illuminating for our mission as educators. To grasp in the desires of boys and girls, in the expectations of adolescents and their restlessness, in the dreams of young people, the work of the Holy Spirit that groans within the heart, to bring out that masterpiece. (…) For this reason, educators are the custodians of hope; they are those who keep pace with children and young people to remind them of the promise that lives in them and to help them to grasp in the moaning of their growth, often hard, the ineffable work of the Holy Spirit who tirelessly animates them and pushes them to go forward. Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello, a man and woman of the Holy Spirit, believed in the ability of young people to tend towards this ‘beyond’ to which God calls us, which they very simply called holiness.”
The morning has entered alive with an act of hope. The inauguration of “I Care Lab”, a “transformable” classroom for “transformative teaching”. It is a new environment where students, teachers, and other professionals can learn how to manage educative activities; conduct and record events and online lectures; collaborate to create, innovate, and experiment with new training methodologies; share good practices. A space – consisting of an advanced technological classroom with a connected control room – where educative innovation is at the service of people. “The name” – said Sister Piera Ruffinatto, Principal – “reflects our commitment to cultivating integrity, care, passion, and responsibility towards education, because educating means taking to heart the future of those who learn and teach.”
“I would like to thank the Lord for this opportunity that increases the communicative capacity of the Faculty and to thank those who have contributed to its realization. Let us make this classroom truly for sanctification and a place where we can grow professionally.” These are the words of Mother General, before cutting the ribbon, followed by the blessing of the environment and people by the Bishop, Msgr. Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi.
Now followed the Report of the Principal, Sister Piera Silvia Ruffinatto, on the Academic Year 2023-24, a year full of commitments and activities, carried out through the three missions that qualify the Faculty – Teaching, research, and external activities – in a perspective of hope. “Our cultural mission – she stressed – combines hope with education. In fact, you can’t educate a person if you don’t believe in their potential for the good and life. Every intellectual effort, every hour devoted to study, every research project is born from the hope that our efforts can lead to significant discoveries, a deeper understanding of reality and its profound meaning, and innovative solutions to the great challenges of our time.” This is why, “educating is an act of courageous hope.”
“The yeast and the flour (cf. Mt 13:33): an unusual metaphor of the Kingdom and its proclamation” is the theme of the Academic Prologue held by Mons. Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi, Secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, who proposed an original reading of the Gospel pages. It is the parable of the yeast and flour and the event in which the risen Jesus on the shores of Lake Galilee, cooks fish for His disciples.
Deepening its various aspects, the “humanistic gesture of cooking”, an act of extraordinary attention to people, as that of Jesus who cooks fish for His disciples, he spoke of its transformative capacity, similar to education: “
“The art of cooking is close to educating, because it is transforming for life; it is keeping together the opposites; it is memory of family, cultures, peoples. It is an act of teaching and learning, of practical knowledge. It is inheritance that propitiates the creative moment; it is attention to people, to things, to times. It is re-awakening hunger.”
A program for teachers and students to study and research education professionals, because the responsibility of the educative act is “to give flavor” to things, people, and the world.
The academic act ended with the greeting of Mother Chiara Cazzuola, Grand Chancellor of the Faculty, at the end of which she declared open the academic year 2024-2025.
“I believe that inaugurating a new Academic Year is a great act of hope for the future, but also a declaration of love for life,” exhorted Mother. Taking up the words of Pope Francis, she said, ‘To educate we must nurture hope in the person to be educated who is a bearer of the good and novelty and a wager on the future’. A new education is needed that promotes the transcendence of the human person, integral and sustainable human development, intercultural and religious dialogue, safeguarding the planet, encounters for peace, and openness to God.”
She defined the educator as an artist-professional who, by accompanying with their own witness and with evangelical wisdom, “causes to mature in the young their unrepeatable identity, critical sense, love for truth, aspiration to freedom, so that they can feel the need of the absolute, of answers to the rising questions of meaning and, relate authentically to Jesus, fullness that brings light to the existence of every creature and commits to solidarity, evangelically called: charity, proximity, fraternity.”
Photos: Flickr
