Pope Leo XIV presided over the Mass with students from the Pontifical universities. Before a full St. Peter’s Basilica, the Pope addressed them with these words:
POPE LEO XIV
Today I wish to address you who are part of university institutions, and all those who, in various ways, dedicate themselves to study, teaching, and research. What grace can touch the life of a student, a researcher, a scholar? I would like to answer this question in this way: the grace of an overall vision — a gaze capable of grasping the horizon, of going beyond.
This celebration took place within the context of the Jubilee of the Educational World, which was inaugurated with the Eucharist.
The Pope emphasized the value of education as an essential service to both the person and society. He took as an example the Gospel account of the healing of the bent-over woman as a symbol of educational action: to teach, to form, and to accompany in “raising up the other.”
POPE LEO XIV
To educate resembles the miracle narrated in this Gospel, because the act of the educator is to raise the other up, to help him stand as Jesus does with the bent-over woman, to help her become herself and develop an autonomous conscience and critical thinking.
The vestments worn by the Pontiff during the celebration drew attention. The red color of his chasuble evokes the presence of the Holy Spirit — something very common in celebrations related to the world of education, and this was one of them.
In fact, just before the Mass began, he signed the apostolic letter “Sketching New Maps of Hope,” a text written to mark the 60th anniversary of the conciliar declaration, Gravissimum Educationis.
BAM
Trans. CRT
