VATICAN (OSV News): Pope Leo XIV met with participants in the International Congress for Pastoral Care in Schools and Universities taking place at the Vatican on October 22-23.
Pope Leo urged educators to recognise the challenges facing young people today, saying many struggle with “digital loneliness,” broken families and feeling “paralysed by the fear of making mistakes” when performance-driven culture turns ruthless.
Organised by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, the congress featured speakers from Haiti, Colombia, Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Spain, Lebanon and Zimbabwe. Discussions focused on cultivating interiority, technology, and educating for peace.
Addressing participants on October 22, the pope said many students may feel “anonymous” as they “walk the halls of our schools and universities.”
He asked, “How many students also face existential hardship: broken families, digital loneliness, feelings of inadequacy or fear in the face of a future that seems uncertain?”
Pope Leo urged educators to recognise the challenges facing young people today, saying many struggle with ‘digital loneliness,’ broken families and feeling ‘paralysed by the fear of making mistakes’ when performance-driven culture turns ruthless
He added that “quite a few young people today are virtually paralysed by the fear of making mistakes, of not measuring up, of being misunderstood, or of failing to meet expectations.”
Pope Leo said, “We live in a performance-driven culture that constantly compares and ranks people, sometimes ruthlessly. A misguided meritocracy ultimately fails to respect people. This is why many end up giving up before they even try.”
In light of these challenges, the pope said Catholic schools and universities must be “first and foremost a home,” where students feel known, welcomed and valued.
The pope noted that a welcoming environment is one in which someone “looks you in the eye, remembers your name, notices your absence, and rejoices at your return.”
We live in a performance-driven culture that constantly compares and ranks people, sometimes ruthlessly. A misguided meritocracy ultimately fails to respect people
Pope Leo XIV
He pointed out, “Beneath the armour that so many teenagers build around themselves to avoid suffering lies the desire to love and be loved.”
The pope stressed, “Pastoral ministry in schools and universities will be all the more fruitful the more it focuses on educating the heart— educating the heart in compassion, gratitude, and the ability to be moved by the suffering of others; educating it in praise and the longing for God.”
Pope Leo recommended service to the poor and volunteer work as experiences “where the heart learns to expand,” urging student ministers to help form young people “to become pioneers of a new way of living in the world.”
Pope Leo emphasised that pastoral ministry in educational settings should nurture thoughtful growth, teach discernment, and support persistent truth-seeking. He said that in a welcoming environment, students can freely seek understanding, highlighting that schools and universities exist to pursue truth together.
He noted that courage comes from trust—someone believing in you before you believe in yourself—and explained that Jesus empowered his disciples through his trust in them, not their courage.
“Dear brothers and sisters, false teachers and deceptive messages promise to provide quick answers to young people’s questions,” Pope Leo said.
He said, “You, however, have chosen to do something greater: to walk with them along the way, until they discover the gifts that God has already placed within them.”
