Fostering Service-Learning from the Holy See
As we close 2025, we would like to take this opportunity to celebrate two events that reaffirm our commitment to solidarity service-learning, and strengthen our relationship with those who are already part of the Uniservitate Global Network, as well as all the “stars” of the Catholic educational constellations. We refer to the inclusion of service-learning in the Apostolic Letter Drawing New Maps of Hope —the first document Pope Leo XIV dedicated to education— and the relaunch of the Global Compact on Education.
Pope Francis had already encouraged the service-learning institutionalization processes initiated in your institutions as he invited them to see themselves as universities that go forth and openly appreciate this pedagogy. Now Pope Leo XIV reinforces that invitation when regarding education and service as an inseparable pair and describing service-learning “as one of the most promising ways to join knowledge and solidarity, intellect and compassion,” as Father Ezio Bono, Vatican coordinator of the Global Compact on Education, stated during the recent VI Uniservitate Symposium.
The Global Compact on Education and the service-learning pedagogy have many points in common, but we would like to highlight one of them: the spiritual dimension, one of the three pillars underpinning our Uniservitate Global Network. Upon relaunching this Compact, which had been initially proposed by his predecessor, Pope Leo XIV invited us to revive the spiritual spirit of Catholic education. “Service-learning is transformative when it is rooted in spirituality and has a healing purpose, where knowledge becomes love and learning becomes a form of service,” said Father Bono.
We are called to chart new maps of hope in the educational constellations and, therefore, celebrate these two events. We thank you for your commitment, which enables the Uniservitate educational constellation to continue expanding and consolidates the collaboration and support between institutions globally. As Leo XIV affirms in his Apostolic Letter on education, each institution has its own brightness, but together they chart a course, and that “unity is our most prophetic strength.”
