The curtain fell this Saturday morning December 03, 2022 on the 1st edition of the National Pilgrimage for Catholic Education staff which took place from Friday December 02 to Saturday December 03, 2022 at the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro with nearly of 10,000 attendees.
This prayer vigil of the actors of the Catholic education system of Côte d’Ivoire was “a total success”, according to the organizers, with nearly 8,000 participants, about sixty priests, a hundred men and women religious who responded to the appeal of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Côte d’Ivoire and prayed for a more radiant and integral Ivorian school.
This moment of prayer, filled with teachings, praise, adoration and spiritual renewal was a good opportunity for the celebrant of the solemn mass, Mgr Gaspard Beby Gneba, bishop of Man and President of the Episcopal Commission for the Catholic education, to call on the actors to keep hope in the face of the trials encountered in the exercise of their profession
“It’s true, we know, we have had some difficulties but the world to come is in front of us. So it is first of all a message of hope to be strong with God in faith, to overcome together not in division, in opposition but together, to face and overcome the difficulties of the present time first within of the Catholic education system, the Church and in society”, urged Bishop Gaspard.
For him, the Catholic school must put more at the center of its curriculum, “respect for the human person, accompany men and children to grow up, to be actors in society, and to build a dignified society and not to become a business school,” he said.
In his communication focused on the sub-theme: “Education in the Magisterium of Pope Francis”, Father Artur KOLA, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at the Apostolic Nunciature in Côte d’Ivoire, urged educators and teachers to keep an open mind to reality, because according to him, students are attracted to teachers who are open-minded, unfinished, who seek something more and who transmit this attitude to learners.
“This allows us to educate the true, the good and the beautiful because in education, one thing is very important, a clean failure is always more beautiful than a dirty victory”, he imagined.
This first edition of the national pilgrimage of Catholic education personnel in Côte d’Ivoire revolved around the central theme: “Education in Côte d’Ivoire at the service of evangelization and integral human development”.
The objective according to Father Jean-Luc N’Dreman, National Executive Secretary of Catholic Education of Côte d’Ivoire (SENEC) was to allow participants to live their Catholic faith, rediscover the foundations of their vocation in this vast mission. entrusted to them by the Church, the education and integral formation of learners.
“Many observant Christians have noted a laxity in the Christian life of employees of Catholic education, which was not, it seems, the case in the past. So on recommendation, our fathers archbishops and bishops took this decision to work hard to raise the spiritual level of all the personnel of Catholic education. So this pilgrimage helps us to make this change so that we become citizens, models, witnesses in our society”, indicated the National Executive Secretary of Catholic Education of Côte d’Ivoire (SENEC) at the end of this pilgrimage.
He was also satisfied with the enthusiasm that this pilgrimage aroused among the actors of the Catholic education system of Côte d’Ivoire while hoping that they could return to their various dioceses to take advantage of all the teachings and recommendations of this pilgrimage.
The second edition of this national pilgrimage is scheduled for 2024. In the meantime, the bishops wanted this spiritual renewal to take place in each diocese in 2023.
Lambert KOUAME with Sercom