PRESENTATION

The Members of the Congregation for Catholic Education’s Plenary Assembly, meeting in 2011, accepted the suggestion of Pope Benedict XVI and entrusted to the Dicastery the task of preparing for the anniversary celebrations of the Declaration Gravissimum Educationis (50 years) and the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae (25 years), both of which fall in 2015. The aim is to give new stimulus to the Church’s involvement in the field of education.

There have been two principal events that have taken place in these subsequent years of preparation. The first was a seminar that took place in June 2012, with the participation of experts from all over the world. The second was the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation’s Members, which met in February 2014.

The indications that emerged in these two meetings are reflected in this Instrumentum Laboris, “Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion”. The text recalls the essential reference-points of both aforementioned documents, the fundamental characteristics of Catholic schools and universities, going on to describe the challenges to which Catholic educational institutions are called to respond, with the development of their own specific mission.

In the years following the Second Vatican Council, Papal Magisterium has repeatedly insisted on the importance of education in general, as well as on the contribution that the Christian community is called to offer education. The Congregation for Catholic Education, too, has frequently addressed this theme in its documents. Therefore, the anniversaries of 2015 are a suitable and invaluable opportunity for taking on board the recommendations of the Magisterium and sketching out guidelines for the coming decades.