Lima, Peru, Jan 22, 2006 / 22:00 pm
During an energetic presentation at the conference “Vatican Council II: Perspectives for the Third Millennium,” held last weekend in Peru, Auxiliary Bishop of Lima Pacifico Tomassi explained in detail the current crisis in Catholic education, saying the answer to the problem is a return to the teachings of Vatican II.
“The Church has always seen the education of man as an essential part of her very mission. Throughout the two thousand years of her history, the Church has always been concerned with the issue of education,” Bishop Tomassi said.
“We could say that charity and culture are signs of her mission, and within culture, the work of the Church in education is as old as the Church herself. How can we fail to recognize, for instance, the valuable contribution of innumerable Catholic schools and universities throughout the history of humanity?” he asked.
Bishop Tomassi recalled that the Council fathers saw it necessary, “in order to express the fundamental importance of education, to dedicate one of its documents to the issue of education: the declaration Gravissimum educationis, on Christian education.”