In his speech to the world of teaching at the Pontifical University of Ecuador (7-VII-15), Francis invited the university community to ask themselves why this Earth and our brothers and sisters need us.

God invites us to collaborate in the development of the world, of his creative work. "It is a gift given by God so that with Him we can make it our own. God does not want a creation for himself, to look at himself. On the contrary. Creation is a gift to be shared".

Even more: "It is the space that God gives us, to build with us, to build a we. The world, history, time is the place where we build this we with God, the we with others, the we with the earth. Our life always hides that invitation, a more or less conscious invitation, which always remains".

It is not only about cultivating the Earth, but also about caring for it, protecting it or guarding it.

Today this is an urgent requirement, in view of our irresponsible behavior:

"We have grown up thinking only that we should 'cultivate,' that we were its owners and dominators, perhaps authorized to plunder it.... ... for this reason, among the most abandoned and mistreated poor is our oppressed and devastated earth" (Encyclical Laudato Si', 2).

And it is that "there is a relationship between our life and that of our mother the earth". The human environment and the natural environment degrade together, they are also sustained and can be transfigured together.

Therefore, we cannot look the other way or ignore these situations. We must go to the causes, because God continues to ask us, as he did Cain, "Where is your brother? Lest we continue to answer, "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen 4:9).       

A Catholic university," Francis observes, "must also examine itself on how the Education it imparts is in relation to the earth and to our relationships with others. And he specifically asks university educators:

 "Do you watch over your students, helping them to develop a critical spirit, a free spirit, capable of caring for today's world? A spirit that is capable of seeking new answers to the multiple challenges that society today poses to humanity? Are you able to stimulate them not to disengage from the reality that surrounds them, not to disengage from what is happening around them? Are you able to stimulate them to that?"

"For that - he continues - you have to take them out of classroom, their mind has to leave classroom, their heart has to leave classroom. How does the life that surrounds us, with its questions, its interrogations, its questionings, enter the university curriculum or the different areas of work educational? How do we generate and accompany the discussion builder, which is born of dialogue in pursuit of a more humane world?"

Dialogue and reflection involves all of us, families, schools, teachers: "How do we help our young people not to identify a university Degree as synonymous with higher status, synonymous with more money or social prestige? How do we help them to identify this preparation as a sign of greater responsibility in the face of today's problems, in the face of caring for the poorest, in the face of caring for the environment?

Francis also has questions for young people, the seed of transformation of this society: "Do you know that this time of study is not only a right, but also a privilege that you have? How many friends, known or unknown, would like to have a space in this house and for different circumstances have not had it? To what extent does our study, financial aid , lead us to be in solidarity with them?"

The Pope points out that educational communities have an essential role in the construction of citizenship and culture. And he suggests: "Be careful, it is not enough to make analyses, descriptions of reality; it is necessary to generate environments, spaces for real research, debates that generate alternatives to existing problems, especially today. It is necessary to go to the concrete".

Finally, he referred to the globalization of the technocratic paradigm, which tends to believe "that every increase in power constitutes progress, an increase in security, utility, well-being, vital energy and fullness of values, as if reality, goodness and truth spontaneously flowed from technological and economic power itself" (cf. Laudato si', 105).

And he invited those present to reflect and play a leading role in a cultural change for themselves, their children and the Earth: "How do we want to leave it? What orientation, what meaning do we want to give to our existence? Why do we pass through this world? Why do we fight and work? Why do we study?"

He notes that "individual initiatives are always good and fundamental, but we are asked to go a step further: to encourage ourselves to look at reality organically and not fragmentarily; to ask ourselves questions that include us all, since everything 'is interrelated' (ibid., 138). There is no right to exclusion.

He concludes by invoking the Holy Spirit, who intervened in the creation of the world, who enlivens all beings, and who impels and animates every Christian in the us of the Church.

In short, here are some fundamental guidelines for educating, also from the perspective of faith, to care for the Earth and service to people:

• creation as a gift from God, given to us to be our common home;

• the challenge educational to forge a healthy critical spirit interested in the reality that surrounds us, in nature and in social contexts, in order to advance towards a more humane world;

• the university Education as degree scroll of responsibility to care especially for the poor and most needy, and at the same time for the natural environment;

• the approach of study as a means and path of growth in solidarity;

• the courage not to stop at descriptions and analyses - obviously necessary - but to promote debates, projects and concrete initiatives in and from the educational community;

• the overcoming of welfare or power as horizons of social life;

• the search for meaning of work and of life, beyond an individualistic framework ;

• the need to cultivate the spiritual life as a sure root and guarantee of quality and constancy, in this Education to the service and care of others and of the Earth.