ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV urged Catholic teachers on Tuesday to focus less on pre-professional outcomes and more on educating students to have rich spiritual lives and use technology in ways that keep human dignity front and center.
Leo issued a set of marching orders to Catholic educators during a special Holy Year celebration that has brought thousands of teachers, students and administrators to Rome.
The brief text, which Leo signed Monday at a Mass for the Jubilee pilgrims, is an update to a 1965 Vatican document laying out the priorities for Catholic educators that was adopted during the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church.
The Catholic Church is one of the world’s leading players in education, operating more than 225,000 primary and secondary schools and enrolling some 2.5 million students at Catholic universities around the globe, according to Vatican statistics. Leo was educated by the Augustinians and is a member of the Augustinian religious order, which places a special emphasis on St. Augustine’s search for truth and the command “Tolle, lege” (“Take up and read”).
In the text, Leo repeated that parents are the primary educators for their children and that Catholic schools must cooperate with them, not take their place. And he said Catholic teachers must themselves be models for their students.
“Educators are called to a responsibility that goes beyond their work contract: their witness is worth a …