The Importance of Faith in the Processes of Upbringing and Education in Pope Benedict XVI’s Letter to the Diocese of Rome on the Urgent Task of Education

Abstract

According to Benedict XVI, the concept of upbringing and education holds a special value and can be an inspiration for a discussion on the contemporary education in families, schools and educational institutions. The Pope’s idea is grounded in the great tradition of pedagogical thinking in the Catholic Church and is, at the same time, inscribed in the current existential considerations of the modern-day man. For Pope Benedict XVI, it is faith and its personal aspect that hold significant importance in the process of Christian upbringing and education. In his Letter to the Faithful of the Diocese and City of Rome on the Urgent Task of Educating Young People, the Pope points to the specific conditions of Christian education in reference to both those who are being educated and those who do their work of educating. The aforementioned conditions are: closeness and trust, the important question about the truth, the capacity for loving, finding the right balance between freedom and discipline, authoritativeness, sense of responsibility, and dependable hope. According to Pope Benedict XVI, a complete education should, as a result, be founded on the direct and personal encounter with man, on being a witness and on the genuine transmission of faith, hope and love together with the values that stem from them.