“It is through education that horrors can be overcome”

(Vatican Radio) The World Congress entitled “Educating Today and Tomorrow. A renewing passion”, organized by the Congregation for Catholic Education, concluded this weekend at the Vatican.

Bramble Badenach-Nicolson spoke with Olivier Duval, President of the International Catholic Child Bureau (BICE) about the congress and its poignancy in the wake of the attacks in Paris.

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 Mr Duval explained how the congress aimed at “developing education in Catholic schools for tomorrow”. He said a Catholic education was not “just educating children about religion… but putting the Gospel into practice”.

He said one of the major points addressed was that Catholic schools are there, “not only for children from Catholic families, but for children from all over the world, from every religion”. He recalled a speaker, who teaches Muslim children in a Catholic school in Lebanon, and who underlined the importance of standing united.

“In this moment of strong tension between different communities, it is important to remind everybody that we should love our neighbor. It looks easy but in reality, it is through education that we can overcome all the horrors that we see in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and even in Paris or in Brussels”.

He believes children must understand how important it is to be in peace with our ‘neighbor’, “even though he’s different”.

Mr Duval reflected on a speech in which the speaker recalled the case of a young couple with an 18 month-old child. The mother died during the attacks in Paris and Duval said the father’s reaction was “wonderful”. The father addressed his wife’s killers, saying “I will not give you my hate”.

“This is the important message… hate is never the answer”.