Pope Benedict XVI received in audience six new ambassadors and non-resident ambassadors accredited to the Holy See from Zambia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, St.Vincent and the Grenadines, Niger and Guinea. In his address to the diplomats, the Pope focused on the theme of education, one of the principal challenges of our times and which today is located “in a context in which the evolution of ways of life and forms of knowledge create human, cultural, social and spiritual ruptures hitherto unknown in the history of humanity”.
In this regard, he also mentioned that social networks “tend to substitute natural social and communicative spaces, often becoming the only point of reference for information and knowledge. The family and schools no longer appear to be the primary or most natural fertile ground where younger generations receive the lifeblood of their existence. … Schools and universities seem to have become incapable of creative projects leading to a transcendental teleology able to attract young people in the very depths of their being. … Today’s world and its responsible adults are not able to provide them with the necessary points of reference”.
The Holy Father asked whether the dysfunction of certain institutions and services, both public and private, can be explained “by an inadequately provided and received education”, and went on to invite the governments of the nations represented by the ambassadors “to contribute courageously to the advancement of humanity, favouring the education of the new generations through the promotion of a healthy anthropology, the essential basis for all true education, and consonant with our common natural heritage”.