"Many young people possess increasingly sophisticated technological devices, yet they struggle to find a meaning for living, hoping, loving and even suffering," Pope Leo XIV observed this May 30 in a meeting on young people's mental health, technology, and the mission of education.
On May 29 and 30, the Casina Pio IV, in the Vatican Gardens, is hosting the meeting “Cards of Hope for a Regional Educational Program: Mental Health, Digital Technologies, and Education,” a joint initiative of the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education, the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science, and Culture (OEI).
Behind "so many difficulties, loneliness, and psychological fragility," the Pope said, speaking in Spanish, "often lies a silent question: 'Does my life have any meaning? Is there a reliable hope for the future?'"
The participants, including numerous Ministers of Education from Central and South America, contributed ideas to the apostolic letter promulgated by Leo XIV on October 28, 2025, on education in the age of artificial intelligence.
Published to mark the 60th anniversary of Gravissimum educationis, the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on education, this 2025 letter outlines the mission of the Catholic school in a fragmented environment, recommending that we avoid "technophobia," but also emphasize the use and purpose of new digital tools.
It also called for the creation of a “global educational constellation,” an extension of the Global Educational Pact established by Pope Francis in 2020.
In that context, Leo noted:
Every culture finds meaning in observing the constellations. Every culture is called to collaborate in charting a common course, deepening the awareness of belonging to a single human family.
Awareness of this great cultural heritage can help us to address one of the greatest forms of poverty of our time: the loss of inner constellations.
Weaving a beautiful life
Receiving the conference participants at the Apostolic Palace, the former missionary and bishop in Peru, who began by saying how much Latin America is “deeply in my heart,” compared education to the handcrafted textiles so often produced on that continent.
[W]ith their many threads and vivid colors, [handcrafted textiles] teach us that no single thread is sufficient on its own to create the design. Only patient weaving generates beauty and strength. Each thread retains its own colour, yet acquires meaning within a broader fabric.
Education, too, is called today to rediscover itself in this way: not as the construction of isolated individualisms, nor as the mere transmission of skills, but as the art of weaving communion.
He warned against reducing human beings to "performance, consumption, or a statistical figure," as this is the cause of "profound inner suffering."
Echoing what he told young Europeans at that continent's largest university, the Holy Father lamented:
Many young people today live under the yoke of expectations and performance, immersed in a frenzied competitiveness that generates anxiety, fear of not being good enough, and disorientation.
For this reason, we cannot approach the issue of mental health solely as a clinical or technical matter. Undoubtedly, the contributions of science, psychology, medicine and the neurosciences are indispensable. But we also believe that human beings can live authentically — and overcome so many inner frailties — within a horizon of meaning. When this horizon darkens, inner emptiness, isolation and despair increase.
When, on the other hand, a person discovers that their life has value, that they are loved, awaited and called to a task in the world, then hope is born. And hope is not a naive illusion: it is a spiritual force that sustains life, even in the most difficult moments.
Young people need an "inner life," the Pope suggested, saying that it's possible to be connected digitally, but still disconnected from others and even oneself.
Cultivating the inner life means helping the younger generations to rediscover silence, reflection, the ability to ask questions, the depth of relationships and openness to the transcendent. To listen to the soul, one must sharpen one’s hearing, for its voice is not a shout, but a whisper.
