Salesian Education, Salesian World News

Listening to Educate: Consecrated Life at the Service of the Church’s Educational Mission

(ANS – Vatican City, May 4, 2026) – In the field of education, listening is an art that must be cultivated together in order to respond to the challenges of our time. This is the central message that emerged from the international meeting titled “A Time for Listening in the Church’s Educational Mission,” jointly promoted by the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), the Union of Superiors General (USG), and the Dicastery for Culture and Education. The event, held at the General Curia of the Society of Jesus in Rome, was a significant moment of fraternal and synodal dialogue on the Church’s educational mission in today’s world.

Synodal Listening for the Educational Mission

More than 100 participants attended in person, with an additional 150 joining online, including superiors general and those responsible for education across various religious congregations.

The initiative is part of a journey that began over a decade ago through the UISG–USG Commission for Education in ongoing dialogue with the Dicastery for Culture and Education. It was described as a true synodal exercise of listening and discernment, aimed at rethinking the educational mission of consecrated life in light of contemporary challenges.

The Salesian Congregation was represented by the Youth Ministry Sector through Rafael Bejarano and Jerry Matsoumbou, representative for Africa.

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça: A Prophetic School

The keynote address was delivered by José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education. He emphasized the urgency of listening to youth culture and understanding consecrated life as a service to the Church’s universal educational mission.

“The school must be a place of dialogue in a secularized world,” he said. “The Catholic school is a meeting place for cultures, generations, and traditions; it is a place of credibility and, above all, of prophecy.”

He called for a renewed prophetic transformation to rediscover the ethos of Catholic education. He also urged religious congregations not to abandon their foundational commitments: the Gospel of Jesus, love and openness to all, and acceptance of every person in their diversity. Listening, he stressed, is a demanding process that requires time and commitment. Only by overcoming routine and stagnation can the educational challenge be fully addressed.

He described religious congregations as a “plural constellation of hope,” diverse in charisms but united in mission, concluding with a powerful image: to become “a sky full of stars for new generations,” embracing the “mysticism of the whole” in education.

Revisiting the Global Educational Pact

Cardinal Tolentino invited congregations to embrace three key priorities from the Global Educational Pact, recently renewed by Pope Leo XIV:

  • Cultivating interior life – addressing youth anxiety and restlessness through formation that nurtures the inner dimension of the person
  • Digital technology at the service of humanity – ensuring technology remains a tool for human dignity and integral development
  • Educating for peace – forming young people as peacemakers by “disarming” both schools and hearts

Challenges and Paths Forward

In times of shared discernment, participants identified key questions: How can interiority be fostered in education? How can the most vulnerable or distant young people be accompanied? How can Catholic school identity be strengthened in today’s culture? How can collaboration between congregations be improved?

Among the main priorities for renewal were:

  • Strengthening collaboration between congregations and dioceses
  • Investing in the formation of lay educational leaders
  • Promoting synodality and inter-congregational cooperation
  • Creating stable spaces for listening and shared reflection
  • Increasing involvement of families and educational communities

A Shared Mission

In the context of the Jubilee of the World of Education, the meeting reaffirmed that education today is a shared mission requiring collaboration, creativity, and fidelity to the Gospel and to each charism.

Only in this way can the “immense good” accomplished daily in educational works around the world be fully recognized and strengthened—even in the most challenging contexts.

Consecrated life, the meeting concluded, is called once again to be “a sky filled with stars for new generations.”