Catholic Independent Schools’ Conference Pope Francis, Catholic Education and the Encounter with Jesus

Pope Francis: the attraction and the challenge

Pope Francis: the attraction

Which image from the past ten months has struck you most?

Pope Francis: the challenge

“They’re actually an expression of his magisterium. He’s sending a message to other cardinals, bishops and priests that this is what we need to do … More broadly, he’s sending the same message to all Catholics everywhere”. Bishop Jorge Eduardo Lozano

Pope Francis: the challenge “Today people prefer to listen to witnesses: they ‘thirst for authenticity’ and call for evangelizers to speak of a God whom they themselves know and are familiar with, as if they were seeing him.”

Pope Francis: the challenge

“Is it possible to walk the path of peace? Can we get out of this spiral of sorrow and death? Can we learn once again to walk and live in the ways of peace? Invoking the help of God, under the maternal gaze of the Salus Populi Romani, the Queen of Peace, I say: Yes, it is possible for everyone! From every corner of the world tonight, I would like to hear us cry out: Yes, it is possible for everyone! Or even better, I would like each one of us, from the least to the greatest, including those called to govern nations, to respond: Yes, we want it!”

Pope Francis: the challenge “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”

Pope Francis: the challenge

Do you find him a challenge too?

Pope Francis: A First Assessment

Is your school engaging with those who have not heard the Gospel?

Evangelii Gaudium : The Joy of the Gospel

A Church that is Missionary “All of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all those on the ‘peripheries’ who are in need of the light of the Gospel.” (EG 20)

A Church which Teaches by Example “An evangelising community gets involved by word and deed in people’s lives….it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others. Evangelizers take on the ‘smell of the sheep’ and the sheep are willing to hear their voice. An evangelizing community is supportive, standing by people every step of the way”. (EG 24) “An evangelising community gets involved by word and deed in people’s lives….it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others. Evangelizers take on the ‘smell of the sheep’ and the sheep are willing to hear their voice. An evangelizing community is supportive, standing by people every step of the way”. (EG 24)

A Church with a Passion for People “Moved by his example, we want to enter fully into the fabric of society, sharing the lives of all, listening to their concerns, helping them materially and spiritually in their needs, rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep; arm in arm with others, we are committed to building a new world. But we do so not from a sense of obligation, not as a burdensome duty, but as the result of a personal decision which brings us joy and gives meaning to our lives” (EG 269) “Moved by his example, we want to enter fully into the fabric of society, sharing the lives of all, listening to their concerns, helping them materially and spiritually in their needs, rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep; arm in arm with others, we are committed to building a new world. But we do so not from a sense of obligation, not as a burdensome duty, but as the result of a personal decision which brings us joy and gives meaning to our lives” (EG 269)

A Poor Church for the Poor “Welfare projects which meet certain urgent needs, should be considered merely temporary responses. As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems. Inequality is the root of social ills” (EG 202).

The Joy of the Gospel A Pastoral and Missionary Conversion which cannot leave things as they are

The Joy of the Gospel Would you describe this man’s vision of the Church as “radical”?

The Encounter with Jesus

“I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her… The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms”(EG 3)

The Encounter with Jesus ”See”, says the Lord, ‘I am the one who will sort out the story’. So often in life we ought to slow down and not try to fix everything at once! To travel in patience means these things: it’s giving up the hope that we can solve everything; its’ making an effort, but understanding that one person cannot do everything and its putting the myth of efficiency into perspective.”

Catholic Independent Schools’ Conference Pope Francis, Catholic Education and the Encounter with Jesus