Rome (Italy). In January 2025, the Salesian month culminating with the Feast of Saint John Bosco, great educator, the Pope’s Video, with the prayer intention that the Holy Father entrusts to the Catholic Church through the Pope’s World Prayer Network – Initiative started in 2016 – is “for the right to education”.
In the video, Pope Francis speaks of a real “educative catastrophe”:
Today we live an “educative catastrophe”. And it is not an exaggeration. Due to war, migration, and poverty, some 250 million children are without access to education. All children and young people have the right to attend school, regardless of their migration status.
Education is a hope for everyone. It can save migrants and refugees from discrimination, criminal networks, and exploitation… Many children are being exploited! And it can help them integrate into the communities that are welcoming them.
Education opens the doors to a better future. So that migrants and refugees can contribute to society, both in their new country and in their country of origin, if they decide to return. And let us never forget that whoever welcomes the stranger welcomes Jesus Christ.
The Holy Father’s intention for the month of January 2025:
We pray that migrants, refugees, and war-affected people may always see their right to education respected; education is necessary to build a more human world.
The Pope’s wish is that “all” children and young people, regardless of their status, can attend school and thus enjoy the right to education that belongs to them. In particular, he highlights the situation of migrants and refugees, who experience even more the discontinuity of education and precarious conditions in which the possibility of studying is not guaranteed.
“In many cases, schools in conflict zones or refugee camps have very limited access to educational materials, adequate infrastructure, and qualified teachers. Moreover, when children and young people move to other countries or regions, their immigration status may prevent them from accessing education and, as a result, a better future,” states the press release in the opening presentation.
In this Holy Year dedicated to hope, prayer nourishes and makes concrete the hope of building a more human world, where the rights of all men and women are respected.
On the occasion of the Jubilee, the International Director of the Pope’s World Prayer Network, Fr. Cristóbal Fones, S.J., recalls “that one of the necessary conditions for obtaining the indulgences granted on the occasion of this Holy Year is, precisely, to pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, which are very concrete, and that during this month the focus is on respect for this fundamental right of very vulnerable people.”
The Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, concretely committed to guaranteeing the right to education for thousands of children and young people in 97 countries of the world, supports this intention with prayer, so that “all” young people, especially the poorest and most disadvantaged, “may have life and have it to the full”.
“The Salesian mission gives priority to the education of those who are poor and at risk. For this reason, it involves all those who are committed to promoting integral formation” (LOME, p.8).
