The FMA at the Jubilee of the educational world

Rome (Italy). From 27 October to 2 November 2025, Rome hosts the Jubilee of the Educational World, an entire week dedicated to schools, universities, and ecclesiastical institutions. Entrusted to the Dicastery for the Culture and Education of the Holy See, it is inspired by the Jubilee theme, “Pilgrims of Hope” and invites educators to travel the educational mission as a pilgrimage, in harmony with the Christian faith and social commitment.

As the Dicastery expresses, “the educational presence of the Catholic Church is an expression of a generative faith passionate about the human person. It is active worldwide with a variety of subjects: 219,000 schools and 1,760 Catholic universities and faculties.” The protagonists of these Educational Constellations will meet in Rome “to share their experience, relaunch their mission, and spread an appeal for education to be the creator of a new culture of development, fraternity, and peace.”

Twenty thousand people are therefore expected, representing Catholic educational communities around the world, engaged in school and university, technical and professional training, including students, teachers, and administrative staff, as well as representatives of the main educational federations and networks or international organizations in the sector from 124 Countries, in particular Italy, Spain, the United States, France, and Brazil.

This Jubilee will be an important opportunity to reflect on important Church documents and on the important role of education as an instrument of fraternity and social transformation on a global scale: the conciliar Declaration Gravissimum Educationis, whose 60^th anniversary is 28 October and the Apostolic Constitutions Ex Corde Ecclesiae (35^th anniversary) and Veritatis Gaudium, in addition to the Global Pact on Education of Pope Francis.

In the presentation Press Conference, Card. José Tolentino de Mendonca, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, announced that a document by Pope Leo XIV will be published on 28 October 2025, to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of Gravissimum Educationis and to reflect on the relevance of the Conciliar Declaration and the challenges that education faces today, particularly for Catholic schools and universities.

Pope Leo XIV will ensure the Jubilee of the Educational World an extraordinary presence:

• Monday 27 October in St. Peter’s Basilica, he presides over the Eucharistic celebration at the beginning of the academic year with the Universities and the Roman Pontifical Institutions;
• Thursday 30, in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican, he will meet the students;
• Friday 31, still in Paul VI Hall, he will meet the educators;
• Saturday 1 November – in the Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Square – he will celebrate the Eucharist for the entire educational world. On this occasion, the Holy Father will declare Saint John Henry Newman Doctor of the Church and co-patron of the educational mission of the Church, together with Saint Thomas Aquinas.

Initiatives, Congresses, Conferences

27 October, 9.00-13.00, at the Don Guanella Work, Conference for school leaders and teachers, promoted by the Auxilium Faculty and Orientation Project, “The school that takes care. Visions and tools for orientation and inclusive teaching” (link)

• 30 October, Conciliation Auditorium, the World Congress “Educational Constellations – A pact with the future” will be held (link)
• 30 October, 5.00pm-7.00pm in the Jubilee Hall of LUMSA University, “Adolescent worlds: a question waiting to be answered”. Evening of dialogue with Eraldo Affinati, Stefano Vicari, Monika Grygiel, and Fabio Bolzetta. The event is organized by the Auxilium Faculty and Libreria Paoline International. (link)
• 30 and 31 October, the Church of San Lorenzo in Piscibus will host the School of the Heart, with moments of prayer and paths of spiritual research, in the diversity of spiritualities, cultures, and arts. (link)

• The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, in particular the students of the Diploma Course in Spirituality of the FMA Institute, will participate and animate the prayer on 30 October, at 3.00 pm, “From dream to mission, meditated Salesian rosary,” offering a path of Marian prayer that intertwines the dream at nine years of age of Saint John Bosco, with the spirituality of Saint Mary Domenica Mazzarello.

  30 and 31 October, the event “Constellations of Educational Networks” will be held in the Sala San Pio. On 31 at 3.30 pm, the Dean of the Faculty “Auxilium”, Sister Piera Ruffinatto, presents a report on: ‘Education as a common good: task and project for shared educational responsibility”. (link).

The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians will participate in this event in two ways: an exhibit that briefly presents the educational mission of the Institute, present throughout the world in the fields of formal, nonformal, and informal education; and the intervention, by the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences “Auxilium”, on the theme, “Education as a common good: task and project for shared educational responsibility”.

• 31 October, in Paul VI Hall, while waiting to meet Pope Leo, male and female students and teachers from the Auxilium Faculty and the Salesian Pontifical University will approach the participants by proposing a survey and/or a short video interview to stimulate reflection on the emerging educational challenges in the global context and on how to increase shared responsibility for education as a common good. The initiative is conceived in collaboration with Nicola Zanardi of Hublab and Susanna Sancassani of Metid of the Polytechnic of Milan.

Complete program

For the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the Jubilee of the Educational World is an opportunity to renew the commitment to educate with hope, promoting dignity, social justice, and care for the Common Home, building the foundations for a better future. It is also an invitation to walk together with young people, listening to their dreams and strengthening their life plans, in harmony with Pope Francis’ Global Educational Pact, testifying to hope in human beings.

“These are important, I would say historic, days for Catholic education, and the Holy Father’s desire is to inaugurate a new season that involves the educational constellations with a new soul and planning, asking them to become true maps of hope in the world of today. Education is the new name for peace and puts hope on the map of the present and the future” (Card. José Tolentino de Mendonça).