Pope Francis invites all of us to the seven commitments of the Global Compact on Education. Two of those are on care for our common home and welcoming everyone including those marginalized. First, Pope Francis’s invitation clearly refers to the encyclical letter Laudato si’, which highlights the global dimension of the current crisis. It is a crisis without any adjectives because it is an inner crisis, projected outwards in all the dimensions of the human being – in the relationship with others, with society, with things, and with the environment. Second, to educate and be educated on the need for acceptance and in particular, openness to the most vulnerable and marginalized. A society is healthy when it knows how to welcome the most vulnerable persons and when it takes care of the excluded so that they become full citizens. A compact on education must therefore aim at welcoming the last, at the culture of inclusion, at cultivating everyone’s attention to the social and existential peripheries, and at healing the deepest wounds of the human person and society.

To facilitate young people from different parts of the world to meet and develop mutual respect and understanding and initiate networking, St John De Britto is launching an International Youth Camp program this year. We invite you to reflect and share the theme together with other participants worldwide. Moreover, you will experience firsthand the cultures, habits, customs, and beliefs that are different from your own at our youth camp!