Miami students 'meet' with Pope Francis

By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic

Florida Catholic staff and OSVNews

MIAMI | Students from Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale and Immaculata-La Salle High School in Miami were part of a global cohort that got to ask questions of Pope Francis during a livestreamed encounter marking the 10th anniversary of an organization created by the pope himself.

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski also made an appearance, via video, at the end of the event (1 hour, 33 minute mark), which took place May 25, 2023, at Miami’s Telemundo studios. The Miami students gathered with peers from New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., for the event, which was organized by Scholas Occurrentes.

Founded by Pope Francis shortly after he began his pontificate in 2013, Scholas brings together young people from different backgrounds to share their problems and collectively seek new solutions. The young people collaborate through educational projects, arts, and sports. The goal is to “promote a new education” that creates “a culture of encounter.”

The movement began in Argentina, and during the meeting Pope Francis said publicly for the first time that he hopes to return to his home country in 2024. "My idea is to go there next year; we'll see if we can," he said.

The day before the meeting with the pope, May 24, the Miami students came together to create a collective piece of art. They met at the Telemundo headquarters to share ideas, collaborate, and create a mural from a blank canvas.

“After sharing a day of fun and fellowship, the mural transformed from a few lines to a work of art,” said Kim Eichholtz, Cardinal Gibbons campus minister.

“The students created a mural which captured the mental health struggles faced by our youth,” said Juan Carlos Moya, director of the Applied Global Leadership Program at Immaculata-La Salle.

“The pope gave a special blessing to the students, and Telemundo showcased the mural the students made throughout the program,” Eichholtz added.

The Gibbons students who took part were junior Jenna Jacobson and freshmen Blair Leo, Sydney Robilio, Robert Simpson, and Julianna Valente.

The Immaculata-La Salle students who took part were Isaac Freudman, Veronica Salazar, and Carolina Moreno.

The livestream with Pope Francis highlighted the places that Scholas has expanded to over its 10 years in existence: 446,000 schools in 190 countries and five continents, according to its website.

“The hope is to continue to grow the Scholas program in the United States and continue to provide young people with opportunities for encounter,” said Eichholtz.

During the livestream, the pope, seated in an auditorium just outside the Vatican, fielded questions from students and one elderly person connected by video calls from Colombia, Mexico, Spain and the United States.

Among them was María Camila Hurtado, a Colombian student from Miami who has lived in the United States for five years. She and the Rome-based host asked the pope for advice about the twin crises of increasing division and gun violence in the United States. (Starts at minute 45.)

Regarding division, he said the key is respecting authenticity, which involves two things. First, "that people express themselves as they are, that they are authentic and respect their own authenticity," and secondly, "that they respect other people as they are."

“The crisis of bullying, in which a person’s way of being is disrespected, is very grave, and lives are destroyed,” the pope said. “Scholas has to walk the path where every man, every woman, every boy and every girl has the obligation to be authentic and the right to be respected for who they are.”

As to the crisis of gun violence, he said he had no “method” for fixing it, but any crisis "must be well-identified" and cannot be overcome alone. “Maybe the way forward is through accompaniment, so that the crisis resolves itself and you emerge together, and better off.”

Pope Francis also responded to a question about integral education and said that young people should have better sexual education in schools rather than learn about sexuality from pornography.

"Pornography is the crudest commercialization of love," he said. "How often, for lack of sexual education, do (people) end up with the commercialization of love. Love is not to be commercialized."

Asked about young people's relationship to older generations by the elderly Spanish woman, the pope recalled how fortunate he was that most of his grandparents lived until after he became a bishop.

"The deepest conversations I had, I had with them," he said. "There, I learned values."

At the end of the meeting, Pope Francis greeted 50 mayors from Latin America and Europe who participated in a Scholas training program to advance green practices in their communities. Pope Francis launched Scholas' environmental project last year at the Vatican alongside U2 frontman, Bono.

The meeting concluded with video greetings from the bishops of U.S. cities where Scholas has begun: Cardinals Wilton D. Gregory of Washington and Timothy M. Dolan of New York, and Archbishops José H. Gomez of Los Angeles and Wenski of Miami.