Helen Saulnier 
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| Not a trainer. |
Pope Francis has declared January a month of prayer for educators. I guess I ought to be delighted about this. He’s even composed a special prayer.
If I were to compose a prayer for teachers, it would be that they—we—always teach truth, and only truth, that we constantly feel of what is ideal for our pupils, and that we have patience with them. All of these have Biblical warrants I could cite. This is also the advice of the terrific academics of the past, Socrates, Plato, Confucius, St. John Bosco.
Francis’s advised prayer mentions none of these items:
“We pray that educators might be credible witnesses, training fraternity somewhat than competitors and encouraging the youngest and most vulnerable previously mentioned all.”
This appears off the wall scatterbrained, as all of Francis’s pronouncements seem to be unusually scatterbrained.
Credible? Why merely believable, or believed, and not truthful?
If there is a moral difficulty with competitiveness, we really should also pray that it be abolished in the planet of sports. No scores should be kept, I suppose, and all online games should really conclusion in a tie. Anything at all else teaches immorality. Can we all get guiding that?
Competition is an powerful academic instrument: it adds interest and incentive. It informs the college student of their progress. Training devoid of it is merely far significantly less productive.
Aiding the youngest over all? Barely a critical issue educators almost never have combined ages in their lessons. If they do, what is the moral value of favouring 1 pupil above a different on the foundation of age? This is arbitrary age discrimination.
Aiding the most susceptible? In a school or other academic context, susceptible to what? Slipping down the stairs? Remaining bullied? Catching COVID? With out specifying a danger, this is meaningless. Relying on the menace, it is largely the task of a faculty nurse, custodian, or vice-principal, not the instructor.
From this prayer, I think we can conclude several matters. Initially, that Pope Francis has no plan what training is about. Next, his worldview is not knowledgeable by Christianity. 3rd, he has at very best a second-class intellect. Fourth, he does not like to use it. He mailed this 1 in.
At a guess, it appears like the subtext is Marxism: competition is negative, because it may well direct to totally free markets. There also appears to be to be a whiff of postmodern nihilism.
Francis’s papacy commonly sows confusion in excess of religion and morals: failing in the principal duty of a pontiff. Nor does he demonstrate a pastoral contact, as could possibly have compensated for this. Clarity is an vital ingredient of pastoral care and beyond this, Francis’s management fashion tends to be gruff and autocratic, and dissent and dissatisfaction inside of the church has developed throughout his papacy. Imagine Archbishop Vigano, the dubia of the four cardinals, the German synod.
So what have been the cardinal electors wondering when they chose him?
When he initially appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s, in a cloud of black smoke, my thought was that he looked like an accountant, not a pope. That may possibly be it. Probably he was picked out for his presumed administrative qualities, to crack heads and set the Vatican’s organizational and economic house in get. It has been notoriously corrupt and dishevelled, and this was an region in which John Paul II and Benedict, in their gentleness, had unsuccessful.
Sadly, I see no proof that Francis has built any headway on this. I hate to say it, but his perspective has seemed much more like “why beat them if you can sign up for them?”
