Staff in Catholic-Sponsored Schools in Bissau Guinean Diocese Urged to Form “good citizens”

Bissau, 16 November, 2025 / 2:03 AM

The Vicar General of the Diocese of Bissau in Guinea-Bissau has called the staff in Catholic-sponsored schools to promote an education that forms socially responsible citizens, who are committed to justice and the common good.

In his homily during the Jubilee of Catholic Schools in Bissau Diocese, organized as part of the ongoing Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, Fr. Davide Sciocco said Catholic education must be a beacon of hope and a tool for social transformation.

“We are pilgrims of hope… the hope Pope Francis spoke of in the opening of the Jubilee Year. This hope must be translated into the concrete reality of everyday life,” Fr. Sciocco said during the November 15 event that was held at Our Lady of the Nativity Cacheu Parish of Bissau Diocese.

He emphasized that the mission of Catholic schools is to translate God’s love into daily practice and ensure educational opportunities for all, especially the most disadvantaged.

“This is my mission—simple but demanding—to offer school, the possibility to begin, to read, to study,” the Vicar General said.

Fr. Sciocco urged Catholic educators to provide quality teaching that fosters critical thinking and moral consciousness, saying, “A Catholic school must give quality education to open the eyes of children, adolescents, and young people, so they can become good citizens and good Christians.”

Highlighting the role of education as a liberating force, he said that schools must prepare students for life’s challenges by helping them “read and understand life in society… and open their eyes toward the future.”

Fr. Sciocco also underscored the need to form discerning and responsible individuals. “A Catholic school must form free people… capable of judging and deciding freely,” he said, noting that freedom must be lived, not merely taught.

The Vicar General went on to reflect on education as a tool for social justice, advocating for schools that defend rights, equity, and full citizenship.

“If we do not live the jubilee, if we do not attend Catholic school, tomorrow we face the struggle for our rights to be respected,” he said.

Catholic schools, Fr. Sciocco continued, must be spaces of opportunity, growth, and solidarity.

He reminded the staff in Catholic-sponsored schools that education extends far beyond academic instruction, and that it serves as an instrument of transformation capable of bringing hope and faith to the whole community.

He insisted that Catholic schools must prepare students to live Christian values in daily life, saying, “We are pilgrims of hope. This hope must be translated into the concrete reality.”

Fr. Sciocco reaffirmed the indispensable role of Catholic schools in forming balanced, responsible, and faith-filled citizens.

The mission of Catholic schools, he emphasized, is “to educate, to form people, to prepare for citizenship… so that tomorrow they may be good Christians and good citizens.”