For some in the world of education, a new academic year takes off, while for others it is exam season. The Church recently celebrated the Jubilee of Education in the context of the Holy Year of Hope. Education enables one to broaden one's vision with hope.
To open the celebrations, Pope Leo XIV presided over a Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit with Pontifical Universities in Rome. About 1300 professors and students concelebrated the Mass. In his homily, speaking about the grace of an overarching vision which can touch the life of a student, a researcher and a scholar, the Holy Father likened the educative experience to the gospel of the day - that of the healing of the bent-over woman (Lk 13:10-17) - in which is seen the grace of moving from ignorance, self-absorption, spiritual and intellectual restlessness to being "lifted up" and "looking up" toward God, others and the mystery of life and "looking beyond" with a broader vision for the future.
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| "Heart Speaks to Heart" (Motto of St John Henry Newman) |
The Holy Father cautioned against being experts in the smallest details of reality while losing the capability of an overarching vision that integrates things through a deeper and greater meaning. The current Jubilee of Hope, slowly moving to its close, has shown us that the Christian experience, and indeed, the Easter experience, wishes to teach us to look at life and reality with a unified gaze, capable of embracing everything while rejecting merely partial ways of thinking. In this way, the educative community learns to integrate research into their lives and spiritual journey.
Our intellectual development, a search for the truth, can never be separated from our lived experience. That is why all that happens in university classrooms and educational environments of all kinds does not remain an abstract intellectual exercise. This, the Pope believes, makes integrated learning and study capable of transforming lives, and, more importantly, it helps us to deepen our relationship with Christ, to understand better the mystery of the Church, and makes us bold witnesses of the Gospel in society.
The educational experience is a responsibility that cannot be taken lightly. Educators, like Jesus in the gospel, must lift people up, helping them become themselves and able to develop informed consciences and the capacity for critical thinking. To educate is an "act of love". Ultimately, the educational journey helps us to know how to speak, narrate, deepen and proclaim the reasons for the hope that is in us (cf. 1 Pet 3:15).
The Jubilee of Education ended on All Saints Day (1 November) when the Holy Father declared St John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Universal Church and co-patron of education alongside St Thomas Aquinas. Through their philosophical and theological work – a constant search for the truth and the practice of virtue – they have shown us how a sound and integrated education in Christian doctrine can open to us the treasures of hope and holiness. The Pope has since declared Newman patron of our Urbaniana University here, if you like, the Pope's Missionary Institute in Rome; it has an association with the newest Doctor of the Church and has prepared seminarians and priests from the so-called mission countries to preach the good news and so make disciples of all the nations for nearly 400 years.
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| Jubilee of the World of Education St Peter's Basilica, 27 October 2025 (Screenshot from the Pope's Official IG handle) |
'The Jubilee', as Pope Leo XVI said in his concluding message, 'is a pilgrimage of hope, and all of you, in the great field of education, know well how much hope is an indispensable seed! When I reflect on schools and universities, I think of them as laboratories of prophecy [in the service of love, justice, and peace], where hope is lived, and constantly discussed and encouraged'. The goal of the Church's educational mission, therefore, despite the darkness that surrounds us, is to create saints, who, by the hope they carry within them, shine as bright stars in the world as they offer it the word of life (cf. Phil 2:15-16).
The Pilgrim
Fr Runaine James Radine
15 November 2025
Memorial of St Albert the Great, patron of scientists, philosphers and students
