Youth of Andiamo during the Sunday Mass
Pope Benedict XVI has devoted his message for XLV World Day of Peace which falls on 1 January 2012 to the theme of education: Educating Young People in Justice and Peace in the conviction that “the young, with their enthusiasm and idealism, can offer new hope to the world”. (Download the message in pdf)
Realizing that the year ending has been marked by a rising sense of frustration at the crisis looming over society, the world of labour and economy, a crisis whose roots are primarily cultural and anthropological, the Holy Father invites his faithfuls to look to 2012 with Psalm 130 attitude of confident trust.
The Psalmist says that people of faith wait for the Lord “more than those who watch for the morning” (v.6); they wait for him with firm hope because they know that he will bring light mercy and salvation.
“This waiting was born of the experience of the Chosen People, who realized that God taught them to look at the world in its truth and not to be overwhelmed by tribulation,” says the pope.
The pope believes that this expectation is powerful and evident in young people and that is why his thoughts turn to them to the contribution, which they can and must make to society.
The pope tells the educators that education is the most interesting and difficult adventure in life. Educating – from the Latin educere, he reminds, means leading young people to move beyond themselves and introducing them to reality, towards a fullness that leads to growth.
This process is fostered by the encounter of two freedoms, that of adults and that of the young. As such it [process] calls for responsibility on the part of the learners, who he says “must be open to being led to the knowledge of reality” and on the part of educators, who “must be ready to give of themselves.”
“For this reason,” continues the Holy Father “today more than ever we need authentic witnesses, and not simply people who parcel out rules and facts; we need witnesses capable of seeing farther than others because their life is so much broader. A witness is someone who first lives the life he proposes to others.”
Addressing those in charge of educational institutions, the pope says that with great sense of responsibility, they must ensure that the dignity of each person is always respected and appreciated.
“Let them be concerned that every young person be able to discover his or her own vocation and helped to develop his or her God-given gifts,” the pope continues to say may they [in charge of educational institutions] reassure families that their children can receive an education that does not conflict with their consciences and their religious principles.
Pope Benedict XVI has also emphatically said to young people that “it is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true … an unconditional return to God who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love?” he asks.
This message has come at a right moment mainly because education is one of the main pillars of Andiamo Youth Cooperative Trust (AYCT). Despite having a number of Nursery schools, AYCT runs also a secondary school, computer school and a technical college and there are dreams to have its own university in future.