Pope Francis wanted to celebrate the world of schools: in a packed St. Peter's Square, with over three hundred thousand people, coming from all over Italy, with signs, banners, colored flags. The national gathering, significantly entitled "We care", was organized by the CEI to underline "the right to choose the best school for one's children, between public institutions and other private schools, such as Catholic ones". 

In his speech the Pope said: "Going to school means opening your mind and heart to reality, in the richness of its aspects, its dimensions. And we have no right to be afraid of reality! School teaches us to understand reality. Going to school means opening your mind and heart to reality, in the richness of its aspects, its dimensions. And this is wonderful! specializes.

Another reason is that school is a meeting place. Because all of us are on a journey, starting a process, starting a road. And I heard that school – everyone today – is not a parking lot. It is a meeting place on the journey. The companions meet; teachers meet; you meet the assistant staff. Parents meet teachers; the principal meets the families, etc. It's a meeting place. And today we need this culture of encounter to get to know each other, to love each other, to walk together...

And then I love school because it educates us about the truth, the good and the beautiful. All three go together. Education cannot be neutral. Either it is positive or it is negative; it either enriches or impoverishes; either it makes the person grow or it depresses them, it can even corrupt them. And what we heard today is so important in education: a clean defeat is always more beautiful than a dirty victory! Remember this! This will be good for us in life. Let's say it together: a clean defeat is always more beautiful than a dirty victory. All together! A clean defeat is always better than a dirty victory! The mission of the school is to develop the sense of truth, the sense of good and the sense of beauty... 

And finally I would like to say that in school we not only learn knowledge, contents, but we also learn habits and values. We educate ourselves to know many things, that is, many important contents, to have certain habits and also to assume values. And this is very important. I wish all of you, parents, teachers, people who work in the school, students, a beautiful path in the school, a path that allows you to grow the three languages ​​that a mature person must know how to speak: the language of the mind, the language of the heart and the tongue of the hands. And please... please, let's not let our love for school be stolen from us.