Specifically, he pointed to the example of St. John Bosco and the Salesians, praising the emphasis they place on education. This is an example that hits home for Francis, who attended a Salesian school as a child.
He also noted that many Christian laity, consecrated persons and priests "have given their own lives for education," and asked the audience to pay them tribute with "a big round of applause."
"Instruction, then, is truly a special form of evangelization," he said, adding that a good education teaches us "the critical method, which also includes a certain type of doubt."
This doubt, he said, is useful in terms of proposing questions and verifying achieved results for the sake of having a greater awareness. However, he stressed that the work of mercy "counseling the doubtful," refers to a different kind of doubt.
Showing mercy to doubters means "soothing that pain and that suffering which comes from the fear and anguish that are consequences of doubt," he said, adding that it is "an act of true love with which one intends to support a person in the weakness caused by uncertainty."
Pope Francis closed his audience saying these two works of mercy aren't removed from our lives, but are things we can commit to by putting the Word of God into practice, specifically the line in scripture when the Lord says that "the mystery of the love of God was not revealed to the wise and intelligent, but to the little ones."
"The most profound teaching we are called to transmit and the surest certainty out of doubt, is the love of God with which we are called to love," he said. "A great love, free and given forever, from which we need to feel a strong responsibility to be witnesses offering mercy to our brothers."
Elise Harris was senior Rome correspondent for CNA from 2012 to 2018.