At the personal invitation of Monsignor Francesco Follo, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to UNESCO, I, along with three other Marianists from France, attended an all-day International Symposium in Paris, France on November 9th. The Symposium, entitled Education - A Path To Love, was the first of its kind co-sponsored by UNESCO and the Vatican and was organized by Fordham University.

There were in attendance around 400 people from all over the world, mainly those involved in varying types of Religion-sponsored education as well as public education and a number of Permanent Representatives to UNESCO from many countries.

The purpose of the Symposium was to address the characteristics of universal education, globalization and the person as inspired by Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, God Is Love. There were many speakers representing various religious and lay groups on both the national and international level. The keynoters numbered among them: Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Secretary General of the United Nations, H. EM. Zenon Cardinal Grocholewski, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education and H. EM. Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop of New York. H. EM. Telesphore Cardinal Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi, India, and President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, gave a summation of what he heard from the keynoters and the nearly 20 persons who were respondents to the main presentations.

The idea is to have a follow-up process and an eventual additional meeting in about two years to share what might come from the input of the various speakers and how it might affect the delivery of education in the future with this unique focus. In all, it was a very worthwhile experience.

Bro. Peter Pontolillo