Francis entered February with his constant interest in the Education of the faith, with a speech to those responsible for the catechesis in Italy. He then reflected with the Diplomatic Corps on aspects of the world crisis. And in the middle of the month, he introduced the Church to Lent, on Ash Wednesday.

The Pope's interest in the Education, which he has been maintaining during the pandemic, has been extended in recent weeks in a speech to those responsible for the catechesis in the Italian Episcopal lecture (30-I-2021). He pointed out three focuses or priorities: the advertisement, the future, the Christian community.

a) In the first place the advertisement of faith(kerygma), because the catechesis is the echo ("the long wave") of the Word of God, which allows the person to participate in the history of salvation. At the same time, it is a mystagogical pathway , which guide towards the "mysteries" of Christ celebrated in the liturgy and favors the meeting staff with Him.

For this reason, catechists "guard and nourish the report of God" (cf. Homily at the meeting with catechists during the Year of Faith, September 29, 2013). Their task should have these characteristics: "closeness - familiar language - openness to dialogue, patience, a cordial welcome that does not condemn" (Evangelii Gaudium, 165).

b) Secondly, the future of the catechesis, which must be inspired by the horizon traced by the Second Vatican Council. We must look to the Council," said St. Paul VI, "with gratitude to God and with confidence in the future of the Church; it will be the great catechism of the new times" (speech in Florence on the occasion of the First International Catechetical congress , June 23, 1966).

Francis now echoes this, and has left no room for doubt: "The Council is the magisterium of the Church. Either you are with the Church and therefore follow the Council, or if you do not follow the Council or interpret it in your own way, as you wish, you are not with the Church". There is no room, even in the Education of the faith, for a "university entrance exam" on a whim of the contents of the Council.

Today, he proposes, a renewedcatechesis is needed that continues to be an "extraordinary adventure" as "vanguard of the Church"; that speaks the language of the people but within, not outside the Church; that listens to the questions and unresolved issues, the fragilities and uncertainties; that is capable of "elaborating updated instruments, which transmit to the people of today the richness and joy of the kerygma, and the richness and joy of belonging to the Church".

c) And with this sense of belonging, he introduces the third point: catechesis and community. We are a family, already at the human level, and the pandemic has highlighted that "only by rediscovering the sense of community can each person find his or her own dignity in fullness" .

The catechesis also has an essential communitarian, ecclesial dimension. It must foster Christian communities that are open, missionary and inclusive, free and disinterested, that dialogue without fear with those who have other ideas, that approach the wounded with compassion. It must creatively place itself at the framework of Christian humanism (as was made clear in the speech to the Italian ecclesial assembly, on 10-XI-2015).

During his speech to the Diplomatic Corps (8-II-2021), the Pope reviewed the various dimensions of the crisis we are experiencing. Once again, he pointed out that the pandemic has made some consolidated comforts and certainties disappear, putting us in crisis.

After reviewing the health, environmental, economic-social and political aspects of the crisis, he finally focused on the aspect he considers the most serious: "the crisis of human relations, expression of a general anthropological crisis, which concerns the very concept of the human person and his transcendent dignity".

A very concrete and worrying manifestation: the enormous effort of computerized educational platforms has not been enough to stop a kind of "educational catastrophe", if only because of the great disparity of educational and technological opportunities that exists in the world.

Today we need," says Francis in his appeal for a global pact educational , "a new period of commitment educational, which involves all the components of society", because Education is "the natural antidote to the individualistic culture, which sometimes degenerates into a true cult of the self and the primacy of indifference. Our future cannot be one of division, the impoverishment of the Schools of thought and imagination, of listening, dialogue and mutual understanding"(Videomessage on the occasion of the meeting "Global compact on education . Together to look beyond", 15-X-2020).

All this, added at the gates of a new Year dedicated to the family, must be strengthened from within the family, as John Paul II pointed out, "offering children a model of life founded on the values of truth, freedom, justice and love" (Familiaris consortio, 48).

A third and final accent placed by the Pope, in relation to the pandemic, is that of the limitation of worship and other activities in relation to the faith. Conceding the need to follow in general the orientations of governments on subject health, he warns that "we must not overlook the fact that the religious dimension constitutes a fundamental aspect of the human personality and of society, which cannot be cancelled; and that, even when we are seeking to protect human lives from the spread of the virus, the spiritual and moral dimension of the person cannot be considered as secondary to physical health".

Moreover, "freedom of worship is not a corollary of the freedom of meeting, but derives essentially from the right to religious freedom, which is the first and fundamental human right. For this reason, it must be respected, protected and defended by the civil authorities, just like health and physical integrity. Moreover, a good care of the body can never do without the care of the soul". "Fraternity and hope are like medicines that the world needs today, together with vaccines".

Lent began in mid-February with Ash Wednesday. Already in his message for Lent (signed on 11-XI-2020), the Pope had pointed out that it is "a time for renewing faith, hope and charity".

On Ash Wednesday, Francis outlined this liturgical season as a "time to return to God," to free the heart from the slaveries that grip it. This return can be costly, as it happened to the Israelites who left Egypt. From time to time, paradoxically, they longed for that slavery: the onions, their memories, their attachments, their false securities, their paralyzing laments. And "to walk it is necessary to unmask those illusions" (Homily, 17-II-2021).

Lent is a time to return to the Father, like the prodigal son, imploring forgiveness in the sacrament of Confession. Time to return to Jesus, like that leper (we all have spiritual illnesses, vices, fears) after feeling healed. Time to return to the Holy Spirit. "Let us return to the Spirit, Giver of life, let us return to the Fire that makes our ashes rise again, to that Fire that teaches us to love"(Ibid.).

Returning is possible only because God has taken the initiative in accompanying Jesus on our journey, touching our sin and our death. It is up to us to let ourselves be taken by the hand; not based on our strength, but welcoming his graces and looking at the wounds of the Crucified One. "Let us kiss them and we will understand that it is precisely there, in the most painful voids of life, that God awaits us with his infinite mercy. For there, where we are most vulnerable, where we are most ashamed, He comes to us meeting" (Ibid.).