In Singapore, Francis turns to education

Sep 11, 2024

By Michel Chambon
After visiting two Southeast Asian countries and one Pacific Island nation, Pope Francis has just arrived in Singapore where he will spend almost 48 hours.

In this island-state and financial hub, which the Pew Research Center recently ranked as the most religiously diverse country in the world, Francis will turn the spotlight on education.

The final leg of the four-nation papal tour will also include customary meetings with civil authorities, a private gathering with fellow Jesuits, and a large public Mass. Francis will also have a closed-door meeting with the clergy of the Singapore-Malaysia-Brunei bishops' conference, and visit a group of elderly and sick people in a building which will soon become the Catholic Hub, a 100-million Singapore-dollar project to erect a new headquarters for Singapore archdiocese.

But two important events will also occur at educational venues in Singapore and underline an important topic of this entire Asian trip, caring for the youth. In Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste, Pope Francis dedicated meetings with young people, encouraging them to audaciously engage with the challenges of their country and serve others with a generous heart.

In Singapore, this insistence on the youth will focus on education. A first event will be on the morning of Sept. 12 when Francis will give his State Address to authorities, civil society, and the diplomatic corps at the National University of Singapore — the Harvard of Asia.

The National University of Singapore is more than a prestigious venue for a papal discourse. Located outside the historical center of the island-state, this higher education and scientific research site is one of the best academic institutions in Asia with students and researchers from all around the world. With other universities and research centers, it positions Singapore as the most vibrant academic hub of Asia. The visit of the pope is a powerful symbol.

On the religious front, the National University of Singapore has recently established a Religious Pluralism Research Cluster. This interdisciplinary umbrella is designed to boost the research and teaching capacities of the university in relation to topics linked to religion. In a world marked by a growing misunderstanding of religious traditions, ideological extremism, and violent conflicts, it is essential to have public platforms where scholars can study religious traditions in relation to each other. And it was indeed the generous gift of one Catholic family which made this research cluster possible.

Simultaneously, the university has received support from several Buddhist and Sikh entities to institutionalize Buddhist Studies and Sikh Studies. Efforts are now made to invite individuals and organizations to support the formal establishment of Christian Studies in order to systematically study how Catholic, Pentecostal, Adventist, and other Christian communities contribute to the making of contemporary Asia. Through this commitment to academic research on religious traditions, individually and collectively, the university is standing close to one of the core priorities of the Jesuit pope, in-depth interreligious dialogue.

The second Singaporean event which highlights the importance of education will occur on the morning of Sept. 13 at the Catholic Junior College. There, Pope Francis will join an interreligious meeting with 500 young people. Unlike other interreligious meetings that Pope Francis had joined with religious leaders in Indonesia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan, this Singaporean contribution will be at a Catholic school and with youths from various faiths. This is a message on how Asian Catholics contribute to and approach interreligious encounters.

In Asia, wherever local governments allow it, the Catholic Church runs schools and universities open to all but where Catholic students are generally the minority. Even though some believe that the goal of these confessional institutions is to insidiously convert non-Christians, more than one hundred years of statistics show the opposite. The vast majority of students never convert to Catholicism. The Church invests massive human and financial resources into public education but remains a religious minority in Asia.

One can argue that Catholic schools are not for the Church but for the society. They are not a self-centered communitarian effort but an investment for the common good. This goes against the belief that religious groups coexist next to each other while serving their own interests only. Catholics are not only taking care of themselves and of their religious rituals, they serve their country through education.

And their schools are highly engaged in interreligious dialogue — a vital disposition for the stability and development of Asian societies. Since Catholics are often a minority among students, and since religion is something valuable for them, Catholic institutions stand as a distinct space of interreligious encounter and engagement. Distinct faiths can be recognized and encountered.

Unlike secular schools that may produce religiously illiterate students, Asian Catholic schools stand as a public space where one can root social habits of interreligious respect and appreciation. These religiously identified institutions help to go beyond superficial interreligious coexistence and anti-religious suspicion to grow collective wisdom and theological depth.

In Singapore, Catholic schools have played a major role in supporting the modernization of the nation but also its unique model of interreligious harmony. As the historical center of the island illustrates too well, the wealthy nation benefited tremendously from educational congregations like the Lasallian brothers, the sisters of Infant Jesus, the brothers of St Gabriel, the Marist brothers, etc.

In collaboration with non-Catholic institutions, Singaporeans have gradually developed a high level of interreligious sensibility that one can observe in public food courts, urban soundscapes, and national holidays. This is a delicate ecosystem with its own challenges and tensions but it does provide safety and stability. And indeed, the Italian caterer who provided food on the papal airplane from Rome to Jakarta without vegetarian and halal options for non-Catholic journalists could probably learn from this interreligious experience of Singapore. 

Therefore, through this interreligious meeting with young people at a Singaporean Catholic school, Francis will remind the world that in Asia, grassroot Catholics are at the forefront of interreligious dialogue. They provide educational institutions open to all, without denominational discrimination and religious blindness. This papal event will honor how interreligious engagement does not simply occur among religious leaders. It grows through public and religiously engaged institutions where young people have their entire place. And in front of this option for interreligious education, Asian Catholics are the massive investors.--ucanews.com