Press Release
“Educating for Human Flourishing.” Online meeting sponsored by UISG
Thursday, June 3 kicks off the third meeting of “Sisters Empowering Women”. Focus on the theme of education with the testimony of the Sisters educators on the application of the Global Compact on Education.
How can education be a tool and a space for empowering the abilities of young women and especially girls? And how can it work to achieve full “human flourishing”, even in times of crisis? These are the questions that will be the focus of the third appointment of “Sisters Empowering Women”, a series of online meetings organized by the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), scheduled for Thursday, June 3, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. (CET).
“Educating for Human Flourishing” is the title of the event, which will be live on Zoom () and on UISG’s YouTube channel. After the welcome address by Sr. Grazia Loparco, historian and professor at the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences Auxilium, the following will speak online: Sr. Arcelia Hernández Elizondo, FMVP, Official of the Congregation for Catholic Education and Sr. Miriam Altenhofen, SSpS, psychologist. Moderating the event, which will offer the invaluable testimony of sister-educators on the application of the Global Comact on Education, will be Chiara Porro, Ambassador of Australia to the Holy See.
The experts will address the topic by focusing on the importance of the “Global Compact on Education” promoted by Pope Francis, a pact to generate change on a planetary scale, so that education is a creator of fraternity, peace and justice. A need even more urgent in this time marked by the pandemic.
In the challenge of the religious for “more inclusive schools”, in the forefront of attention is the contribution that Catholic schools offer to global development and the promotion of a culture of peace and fraternity: according to the Global Catholic Education Report 2021, 62 million children worldwide are enrolled in Catholic schools, from kindergartens to secondary schools, and more than 6 million students are enrolled in Catholic higher education. Yet “the pandemic is threatening the sustainability of some colleges and universities, especially when they do not benefit from state support,” the report states.
“For this meeting,” says Sr. Patricia Murray, executive secretary of UISG, “we asked the experts to analyze the main trends affecting schools and universities, and then propose itineraries and perspectives that can counteract learning poverty, guarantee educational pluralism and the right to education, especially in those countries where so many girls become ‘brides’, are forced into prostitution or forced labor. The school is the crossroads for intercepting these young girls, communicating to them a ‘word’ of truth and offering them the possibilities to make their future flourish”.
Upcoming dates for the Sisters Empowering Women event are June 25, July 8, and July 15. Official hashtag: #SistersEmpoweringWomen.
Rome, June 1, 2021
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