In a speech to the Bishops of Portugal (7-IX-2015), Pope Francis reflected on young people, their longings, their experiences, their needs. And also on the subject of catechesis, or of Education in the faith, which is suited to these needs.

I think," he pointed out on this occasion, "that in the texts prepared for the successive years of catechesis, the figure and life of Jesus are well present; perhaps it was more difficult to find him in the life witness of the catechist and of the entire community that sends and supports him, founded on the words of Jesus: 'I am with you always, to the end of the age' (Mt 28:20)".

And he explains: "There is no doubt that he is there, but where do we hide him? Because if the proposal is Jesus Christ crucified and alive in the catechist and in the community, if Jesus sets out with the young person and speaks to his heart, the latter will surely be inflamed (cf. Lk 22:15 and 32)".

The Pope notes that Jesus certainly walks with young people in their formative process. But today the catechist - the educator - and the Christian community that supports him are asked to move from a merely "scholastic" model - and therefore with risks of rationalistic excesses - to a catechumenal model . That is to say, that knowledge that could remain in theory is not enough, but it is also necessary to seek the meeting staff with Jesus Christ, who calls so that the human being responds (cf. Is 49, 1 and 5).

Moreover, in an interview granted to Radio Renascença (Portugal, 14-IX-2015), Francis stressed the need to take harmonious care of the three languages of the training: head, heart, hands.  

In the concrete case of young people, the Pope recommends starting by doing: "If you propose to a young person - and we see this everywhere - to go on a hike, a camp or go on mission elsewhere, or sometimes go to a "cotolengo" to care for the sick for a week or fifteen days, he gets excited, because he wants to do something for others. He is involved", that is, he enters, he commits himself, he does not watch from the outside.

"Well," Francisco explains, "it is important that catechesis is not purely theoretical. It is useless. The catechesis is to give him doctrine for life and, therefore, it has to be of three languages, with three languages: the language of the head, the language of the heart and the language of the hands. And the catechesis must enter in those three languages".

In other words: "Let the young person think and know what faith is, but at the same time, let him feel with his heart what faith is. And at the same time, do things. If the catechesis lacks one of the three languages, of the three languages, it does not go. The three languages: think what you feel and what you do, feel what you think and what you do, do what you feel and what you think".

It is necessary, therefore, to bring together the three things: "the truths that must be believed, what must be felt and what must be done, what must be done, all together".

Someone might say that this is a simple committee . And then it could be replied that it is, but not so simple to take to internship, to carry out, which is what matters.

The temptation can be to remain in one or two of these three dimensions. Something that has happened a lot, unfortunately, in the religious and moral Education of much of the twentieth century.

But the Pope highlights the integrative approach that is being rediscovered, both by educators and by academics, experts and researchers at Education.

Head, heart and hands. Francis insists on the need to educate the knowledge, but also the affections, and the tasks to be carried out in a spirit of service. But he does so by emphasizing the integration and interrelation between the three dimensions of this process. This is a golden rule for all Education, including the university, especially if it is of Christian inspiration. This rule applies especially to the Education of faith, whether in its modality of catechesis or in its modality of teaching school or academic religion.