The Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has challenged Catholic teachers in the country to work for a kind of education that is the fruit of an encounter with God and that allows young people to discover the meaning of life.

In a message he gave at the end of a special Mass for schools, the Cardinal encouraged teachers to renew their commitment to education and to their calling as teachers.  He urged the teachers to seek out new and unique ways of educating students based on an encounter with God and to help students find the answer to their questions about the meaning of life.

Cardinal Bergoglio noted that living the faith and holding to a particular way of understanding the human person are not popular concepts in “these times of relativism and lack of certainties.”

“The less certainties there are, the easier it is for us to be convinced that the only thing that is solid and certain are the slogans of consumerism and the image that are proposed to us.”

He warned Catholics against becoming defensively entrenched in their own world or becoming bitter about reality.  The truths of the faith, he said, must lead believers to make “positive contributions” rather than isolating themselves from society.