Jubilee of the World of Education
PRESS RELEASE
The Catholic Church is celebrating the 25th Jubilee of history, with the theme “Pilgrims of Hope”. The Holy Year is also organized through a calendar of major themed events, prominent among which is the Jubilee of the World of Education, which will take place from 27 October to 1 November 2025.
This Jubilee is entrusted to the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See, which coordinates the mission of culture and education, with particular reference to the Catholic sphere.
The Jubilee will be the culmination of many projects and initiatives that, all over the world, already animate places of education, starting with schools and universities. In these educational constellations, millions of people are committed to constructing their own life projects: Education is truly an act of Hope!
CATHOLIC EDUCATION IN THE WORLD
The Catholic educational network is the largest of its kind in the world: present in 171 countries, it comprises over 231 thousand school and university institutions, transversal from a sociological, economic and cultural point of view, attended by almost 72 million students.
Catholic schools and universities around the world are places open to the search for truth, contributing to the common good, promoting hospitality, justice, development and peace, and giving knowledge and service back to the Church and society.
It is this widespread and luminous presence that leads us to speak of Constellations of Hope, the title chosen for the Jubilee of the World of Education and reflected in its numerous events.
THE JUBILEE OF THE WORLD OF EDUCATION
The Jubilee of the World of Education will take place from Monday 27 October to Saturday 1 November 2025.
Thousands of participants are expected (already more than 15,000 registered, from 14 countries), who during the week will be invited to perform the most significant rite of the Jubilee - the passage through the Holy Door - and to participate in a rich calendar of initiatives, presented on Wednesday 22 October during a press conference at the Holy See Press Office.
THE EXTRAORDINARY PRESENCE OF POPE LEO XIV
Pope Leo XIV will ensure an extraordinary presence at the Jubilee of the World of Education: on Monday, 27 October, he will meet with universities and pontifical institutions during Holy Mass; on Thursday, 30 October, he will speak to students; on Friday, 31 October, to educators; and on Saturday, 1 November, during Holy Mass in Saint Peter’s Square, he will address the entire world of education.
In the course of these four meetings, the Holy Father will have the opportunity to meet a significant representation of men and women engaged in education, explaining his educational Magisterium and offering his vision and guidance for the years to come.
During the press conference to present the programme, the prefect of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, also announced:
“Next Tuesday, 28 October, a document by Pope Leo XIV will be published, to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of Gravissimum Educationis, and to reflect on the current relevance of the Conciliar Declaration and on the challenges that education has to face today, in particular for Catholic schools and universities.
We can therefore affirm that the Declaration Gravissimum Educationis will provide the backdrop to the celebration of the Jubilee of Education, and that the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, will dedicate particular pastoral attention to the world of education in these historical days: through the publication of this document, in his addresses to students and educators during the planned audiences, and in the opening and closing homilies of this Jubilee.
In addition, Pope Leo XIV will take advantage of the Jubilee of Education to relaunch the Global Compact on Education, an initiative of Pope Franics which has acquired extraordinary resonance in many regions of the world. It is true that the Church celebrates and is grateful for a fruitful educational history, but is also facing the need to update her offerings in the light of the Rerum novarum of our time. Pope Leo XIV will add three new objectives to the seven already outlined by Pope Francis: the development of the inner life, the humanization of the digital world, and education in peace.
And finally, the Holy Father has decided to associate the Jubilee of Education with the figure of an extraordinary educator and great inspirer of the philosophy of education: Saint John Henry Newman. We know that he will be declared a Doctor of the Church in the celebration on 1 November, the closing Holy Mass of the Jubilee of the World of Education. But that is not all. In the document he will publish next Tuesday, Pope Leo XIV affirms that, in the context of this Jubilee, he will have the great joy of naming Saint John Henry Newman co-patron of the educational mission of the Church, together with Saint Thomas Aquinas.
These are important, I would say historical days for Catholic education, and it is the desire of the Holy Father to inaugurate a new season that involves educational institutions with a new spirit and new plans, asking them to become true maps of hope in today’s world. Education is the new name for peace and places hope on the map of the present and the future”.
OBJECTIVES
The Jubilee of the World of Education aims to summarize and relaunch the commitment of those who care about the future of the younger generations (families, educators, institutions, etc.) and send a powerful appeal for education to be placed at the centre of public debate because of its ability to promote fraternity, peace and justice.
REFERENCES
The conceptual references for the Jubilee of the World of Education are the Conciliar Declaration Gravissimum Educationis (whose 60th anniversary will be celebrated during the Jubilee); the Apostolic Constitutions Ex Corde Ecclesiae (which celebrates its 35th anniversary) and Veritatis Gaudium; the Global Compact on Education and Culture and the recent Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te, published on 9 October by Pope Leo XIV.
PROGRAMME
The complete programme of the Jubilee of the World of Education – updated on the websites of the Dicastery for Culture and Education (www.dce.va) and the Jubilee (www.iubilaeum2025.va) – is summarised here in its main points.
Monday 27 October
The Jubilee of the World of Education will open officially in Saint Peter’s Basilica, where at 17.30 Pope Leo XIV will celebrate Holy Mass with the Roman Pontifical Universities and Institutions for the beginning of the academic year. These institutions participate in the mission of the Church through the formation of professional figures who can proclaim the Gospel, carry out scientific research on themes of evangelization, and develop intellectual tools for intercultural dialogue and advice to ecclesiastical bodies.
Tuesday, 28 October
This day marks the 60th anniversary of the Conciliar Declaration Gravissimum Educationis. The document was published during the Second Vatican Council, which brought together bishops from around the world from 1962 to 1966. They reaffirmed the need for the Church to carry out her ministry in all fields of education with conviction and competence. With prophetic spirit, the document addressed the challenges of the modern world and remains extraordinarily relevant today, including in the work of the Pontifical Foundation Gravissimum Educationis, which operates within the Dicastery.
Wednesday, 29 October
The exhibition “Vivere, credere, guardare questo cielo” (Living, believing, looking at this sky) by artist Tommaso Spazzini Villa will be inaugurated. Hosted in the spaces of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, the exhibition presents works from the Radici (Roots) series, in which the pages of classical texts become living palimpsests, capable of welcoming the action of nature within the forms of culture. A poetic dialogue between knowledge and matter, where education (understood as the pedagogy of the gaze) proves to be fertile ground for research, transformation and inhabiting complexity.
Meanwhile, at the Conciliazione 5 space, located along the street of the same name, it will be possible to visit the exhibition by artist Vivian Suter, focused on exploring the relationship between man and the environment. Through the visual richness of the tropical landscape and in dialogue with the Monumental Greenhouse of the Botanical Garden of Rome, the exhibition invites us to take seriously the “ecological debt” that Pope Francis spoke of, among other things, the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee and to consider that “the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet” (Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi te, 96, 2025).
Thursday, 30 October
At 11.00, in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV will meet with students. Before the Holy Father’s arrival, a four-day programme promoted by the Italian Ministry of Education and Merit will conclude, focusing on the role of students, who are called upon to reflect on their school experience. The Holy Father will address his message to over 6,000 young people, representing their peers who, throughout the world, are committed to building their own life projects in the service of the common good.
From 9.00 to 18.00, the Auditorium Conciliazione, near the Vatican, will host the International Conference “Costellazioni educative, un patto con il futuro” (“Educational constellations, a pact with the future”): 1700 delegates from all over the world will meet to reflect on and confront together the challenges of education, from the digital transition to mental health. The day will begin by reaffirming the extreme relevance of a universal right and will feature numerous experts in the field of education. It will conclude with Visions for the future from Nobel Laureate Jon Fosse and astronomer Fr. Guy Consolmagno.
From 9.00 to 18.00, the Church of San Lorenzo in Piscibus, adjacent to the Vatican, will host “La scuola del cuore” (“The School of the Heart”). Here, 45-minute prayer sessions will be held, designed as paths to encourage a personal and communal encounter with the Lord and to allow oneself to be touched by his infinite compassion, the living source of an inexhaustible educational passion. The animation will be provided by religious institutes and associations with an educational charism, in the richness of spiritual traditions, cultures and art. Through this proposal, the Jubilee wants to offer a time and space to rediscover the heart, the interiority, that profound “sanctuary” of every human being.
From 9.00 to 18.00, the Sala San Pio X, near the Vatican, will house an exhibition entitled “Costellazioni delle reti educative” (“Constellations of educational networks”). In this space, international Catholic networks working in education, formal and informal, will present projects and experiences from every continent through stands, meetings and testimonies. The event is intended to offer a concrete and current overview of the educational commitment of the Church in the world.
In the Village, it will be possible to learn about innovative experiences carried out in the wake of the Global Educational Pact relaunched by Pope Leo XIV.
Friday 31 October
At 11.00, in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV will meet with educators and those who, in various ways, are engaged in the formation of the young generations. It will be an opportunity to thank the Lord for their witness and to relaunch the common mission in the field of education. At the end, there will be a communal crossing of the Holy Door.
From 9.00 to 18.00, at the Corsie Sistine di Santo Spirito in Sassia, near the Vatican, visitors can view “Dalle Radici alle Stelle – Un cammino nell'educazione” (“From Roots to Stars – A Journey in Education”), an artistic and cultural installation on the meaning of education, curated by director Andrea Chiodi and artists Adriano Attus and Tommaso Spazzini Villa, based on the conciliar declaration Gravissimum Educationis. The twelve points that make up the document will be linked to twelve artistic elements, capable of evoking the journey and meaning of Catholic education.
Throughout Friday, the events “La scuola del cuore” (“The School of the Heart”) (Church of San Lorenzo in Piscibus) and “Costellazioni delle reti educative” (£Constellations of Educational Networks”) (Sala San Pio X) will continue, with the presentation of the book “Testa, cuore, e mani – Grandi educatori a Roma” (“Head, Heart and Hands – Great Educators in Rome”) by Eraldo Affinati at 17.00.
Saturday 1 November
At 10.30 in Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV will celebrate Holy Mass for the entire World of Education, and will proclaim Saint John Henry Newman “Doctor of the Church”.
SIDE EVENTS
Given its conceptual and real scope, the Jubilee of the World of Education includes numerous side events, held locally and in Rome. Among the latter are: La Scuola è Vita (School is Life) (27-30 October), a training programme promoted by the Ministry of Education and Merit of the Italian Republic; the World Conference of University Rectors (31 October 2025), promoted by Roma Tre University; and the Jubilee of Knowledge (30 October), organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Social Sciences.
PARTNERS
The Jubilee of the World of Education is promoted by the Dicastery for Culture and Education
In collaboration with: the Jubilee Committee – Culture and Education; the Pontifical Foundation Gravissimum Educationis; the Global Compact on Education.
With the contribution of: Enel SpA; Fondazione Roma; Con i bambini – Fund to combat child educational poverty; Sanimpresa; Fundação Ilídio Pinho.
Special thanks to: Asociación Católica de Propagandistas; Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo; Universidad Católica de Ávila; University of Notre Dame du Lac.
ACCREDITATION PROCEDURE
Journalists and media operators who wish to participate in the events of the Jubilee of the World of Education for which the presence of the press is envisaged must apply no later than 24 hours before the event, via the Holy See Press Office online accreditation system, at: press.vatican.va/accreditamenti
Rome, 22 October 2025
