Pope Leo calls on Catholic schools, universities to be welcoming homes where students can encounter Christ

October 23, 2026

At a time when “many walk through the corridors of our schools and universities and perhaps feel anonymous,” Pope Leo XIV said that Catholic educational institutions should be “first and foremost, a ‘home’—a familiar place where people know they are expected and welcomed.”

The Pontiff made his remarks during an October 22 audience with participants in a conference on pastoral care in schools and universities. The theme of the conference, organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, is “Drawing New Maps of Hope,” the title of Pope Leo’s 2025 apostolic letter on Christian education.

“Quite a few young people today are paralyzed by the fear of making mistakes, of not being good enough, of being misunderstood, or of failing to live up to expectations,” the Pope said during the audience. “Courage is born from a pact of trust: from the experience of someone who believes in you before you believe in yourself.”

In this context, Pope Leo called on Catholic educational institutions to “help young people experience the beauty of the encounter with Christ, the fruitfulness of the synergy between faith and reason”—as well as to help them “become protagonists of a new way of inhabiting the world, builders of fraternity and of a more just society.”

 

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Further information:

• To the Participants in the International Congress on the Pastoral Care of Schools and Universities (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 10/22/26)
• Pope urges Catholic schools to help young people find new way to live in world (Vatican News, 10/22/26)