Francis drew the outlines of a Christian educational program that could well be called a pedagogy of hope, illuminating the path of this Jubilee Year. 

In a plenary session of the Executive Council at Christmas time, on January 4, Pope Francis dedicated a speech to an important group of Italian Catholic educators, based on what he called the Pedagogy of God. With quick strokes he outlined a program for Christian-inspired Education . A program that we could call the pedagogy of hope, and that illuminates our path in the Jubilee year.

What is," Francis asked himself, " God's educational method?" And he answered: "It is that of proximity and closeness". In the background resounded the trinomial that he usually repeats: closeness, compassion and tenderness. And this may lead us to ask ourselves: how should we Christians approach a pedagogy of hope?

The curtain opens on divine pedagogy: "Like a teacher who enters the world of his students, God chooses to live among men in order to teach through the language of life and love. Jesus was born in a condition of poverty and simplicity: this calls us to a pedagogy that values what is essential and places humility, gratuitousness and acceptance at the center". 

In contrast," the Pope explains, "pedagogy that is distant and distant from the students is neither useful nor financial aid. In fact, Christmas teaches us that greatness is not manifested in success or wealth, but in love and service to others.  

"God'spedagogy is a pedagogy of gift, a call to live in communion with Him and with others, as part of a project of universal fraternity, a project in which the family occupies a central and irreplaceable place".

Let us note how this orientation resonates with the main chords of the teachings of Francis, whose center is communion with God and with people. And which leads us to praise and thank him(Laudato si', be praised), especially for the gift made to us in the Heart of Christ(Dilexit nos, who loved us). Such is the horizon of Christian advertisement (Evangelii gaudium, of the joy of the Gospel). An advertisement that implies, in fact, the project of a universal fraternity(Fratelli tutti, all brothers and sisters), in which the family has a nuclear role(Amoris laetitia, the joy of love).

For this reason, he continues, God's pedagogy is "an invitation to recognize the dignity of every person, beginning with the discarded and marginalized, as the shepherds were treated two thousand years ago, and to appreciate the value of every stage of life, including childhood. The family is the center, let us not forget that!" 

It is worth recalling here the Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dignitas infinita (April 8, 1920), which underlines the value of human dignity, easily recognized by the believer, since God loves every human being with infinite love and "thereby confers on him infinite dignity"(Fratelli tutti, 85. The expression is from John Paul II, Message to the Disabled, November 16, 1980).

For the purpose the family, and to invite communication in the family, the Pope stops to tell a story. A person was eating Sunday lunch in a restaurant. At the next table there was a family, the father and the mother, the son and the daughter, each one attentive to his cell phone, without talking to each other. This gentleman got up and told them that, since they were a family, why didn't they talk to each other. The result is that they sent him on his way and went on with what they were doing?

In the second part of the speech, Francis placed himself on the path of the Jubilee we are beginning. With the Incarnation of the Son of God, hope has entered the world. 

"The Jubileehas much to say to the world of Education and schools. In fact, 'pilgrims of hope' are all the people who are looking for meaning in their lives and also those who help the young to walk this path".

That's right. A parenthesis. In the global educational pact that Francis has been proposing, and whose launching was interrupted by the pandemic, the question of meaning occupies a central place (cfr. Instrumentum laboris, 2020) In setting out the general lines of the educational task we need today, Benedict XVI is quotation in his Letter to the dioceses and the city of Rome on the urgent task of education (January 21, 2008) when he says: "We speak of a great 'educational emergency', confirmed by the failures in which our efforts to form solid persons, capable of collaborating with others and of giving meaning to their lives, very often end in failure". 

In fact, the increasing numbers of suicides among young people only confirm this urgency (in 2023, a study showed that in Spain, suicide is the leading cause of death in young people and adolescents between 12 and 29 years of age).

Let us continue with Francis' speech . He maintains the evidence that Education has to do in a central way with hope: the hope, supported by the experience of human history, that people can mature and grow. And this hope sustains the educator in his task: 

"A good teacher is a man or woman of hope, because he or she submission with confidence and patience to a project of human growth. His or her hope is not naive, it is rooted in reality, sustained by the conviction that every educational effort has value and that every person has a dignity and a vocation that deserve to be cultivated". 

For this purpose, the Pope expresses his pain when he sees children who have no Education and who go to work, often exploited, or who go to look for food or things to sell where there is garbage.

But, he asks, "how not to lose hope and nourish it every day?" 

And he advises: "Keep your gaze fixed on Jesus, teacher and companion on the way: this allows you to be truly pilgrims of hope. Think of the people you meet at school, children and adults". 

As he said in the Bull for the convocation of the Jubilee: "Everyone hopes. In the heart of every person there nestles hope as a desire and expectation of the good, even in ignorance of what tomorrow will bring"(Spes non confundit, 1). 

This is an argument that already appeared in Benedict XVI's encyclical Spe salvi (cf. nn. 30 ff.): there are the small or greater human hopes (which everyone has, in relation to love, work, etc.), depending also on the times of life. And then there is the hope proclaimed by the Christian faith: "the greatest hope that cannot be destroyed even by frustrations in small things or by failure in events of historical importance" (n. 35).

Well, says Francis: "These human hopes, through each one of you - the educators - can find Christian hope, the hope that is born of faith and lives in charity". And he adds: "Let us not forget: hope does not disappoint. Optimism disappoints, but hope does not disappoint. A hope that surpasses every human desire, because it opens minds and hearts to life and eternal beauty".

How can this be done, then, so that it can happen in schools or in schools of Christian inspiration? 

Here is Francis' proposal : "You are called to elaborate and transmit a new culture, based on the meeting between generations, on inclusion, on the discernment of the true, the good and the beautiful; a culture of responsibility, both staff and collective, to face global challenges such as the environmental, social and economic crises, and the great challenge of peace. At school we can 'imagine peace', that is, lay the instructions for a more just and fraternal world, with the contribution of all disciplines and the creativity of children and young people.

Let us note some elements of the proposal. First of all, the Christian educator does not fly over human hopes in order to take a shortcut to the only important thing, which would be Christian hope. To understand this would be a mistake. Christian hope assumes human hopes, personal or social, provided they are true, good and beautiful, even if some may be considered smaller in scope or duration. "Christian hope assumes all the hopes" that we have today, such as peace, even if their achievement seems difficult or distant. 

Secondly, the great Christian hope, on this path of assuming the smallest - if one wants to speak in this way - human hopes, is creating a new culture, which must be "a culture of staff and collective responsibility", precisely through Education. But this requires an effort, in the staff and social field, in the direction of meeting, inclusion, ethical responsibility. 

Third, teaching, not only at the university but also at the high school school level, needs multidisciplinarity. multidisciplinaritythat is, the work of bringing together the different subjects of the curricula, so that each one contributes its best in dialogue with the others, and thus can enrich Education and better help students in their staff growth.

In his apostolic constitution Veritatis gaudium (2017), on that anthropological or cultural basis of the multidisciplinarity, Francis proposes a further step: transdisciplinarity, understood "as the placement and maturation of all knowledge in the space of Light and Life offered by the Wisdom that flows from God's Revelation" (cf. 4 c).

Fourth and finally, all of this requires, from the school or high school, discernment and creativity. First, in the teachers, in their minds, in their work, staff and team. And then, they must teach the students these fundamental attitudes: to discern the true, the good and the beautiful; and to boost their creativity. And not to lose themselves in useless imaginations or daydreams, but to "lay down the instructions" of a more just and fraternal world; to "face the challenges" both personal and global.

Someone might ask: aren't these too many goals? Isn't this project educational proposed by Francis somewhat utopian, perhaps attractive, but unattainable in reality?

And it is precisely at this moment, when this question is asked, that our hope is test , that of every educator. And, before that, that of every family. And, later and at the same time, that of every educational center. 

So we could say or tell them, or tell us: you have (have) so much hope, you will have (will have) so much engine, for your (or your) educational task. 

For the rest, the Pope does not abandon realism. He says: all this (imagining peace with realistic dreams) will not be possible if the school allows "wars" among educators or bullying with or among students... Then peace would be unimaginable, as would be all the dreams of Education. 

The end of the speech is near. What is important in the school or high school is not the building, but the people. By its very nature, the educational task involves a path and a community, a place for the testimony of human values. 

This was known to the great promoters and educators of educational institutions in which those who listened to the Pope that day were working. Those of us who are now reading this speech know it and wish to take advantage of it to continue in the educational field or to regain new impetus.

Francis knows this well. And he offers, in conclusion, a few pieces of advice or suggestions that, in their apparent simplicity, deserve to be meditated upon and worked on. They appeal both to the "educational passion" and to the responsibility and discernment of educators and school administrators.

They are condensed in this paragraph:

"Never forget where you come from, but do not walk with your heads turned backwards, lamenting the old days. Think rather of the present of the school, which is the future of society, in full epochal transformation. Think of the young teachers who are taking their first steps in school and of the families who feel alone in their educational task. Propose to each one your educational and associative style with humility and novelty".

Francis encourages us to work together on the path of hope: "Hope never disappoints, never, hope never stands still, hope is always on the way and keeps us going".