Religion 17/12/18 Japanese students have on-line video chat with pope - A good education is one that looks toward service to others, pope tells students at the

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Japanese students have on-line video chat with pope

A good education is one that looks toward service to others, pope tells students at the Jesuit Sophia University in Tokyo

A woman caresses Pope Francis's face during a recent weekly general audience at the Vatican. (Photo Andreas Solaro/AFP)

December 21, 2017

Students at Jesuit-run schools in Japan have enjoyed some time talking with Pope Francis via a video link between the Vatican and Japan.

The one-hour chat was held on Dec. 18 at Sophia University, founded in 1913 by Jesuits in Tokyo. The pope spoke in Spanish, which was translated into Japanese, and answered eight questions chosen from about 100 submitted by students.

The video discussion was broadcast live and made available on YouTube’s Sophia University Channel.

"Education that does not look toward service to others is an education that goes towards failure," Pope Francis told the students. "It is a self-referential education that looks at itself, and this is dangerous."

Asked what his major concerns and hopes were for today's youth, the pope replied, "to rediscover memory, that is, the roots, but not to keep them in the closet, but to make them a dialogue with the present, looking to the future."

Offering the students encouragement, the pope said, "In facing the challenge of the present, those roots will bear fruit, and tomorrow they will flourish."

Other questions ranged from, "What is your greatest joy since becoming pope?" to problems of the environment, refugees, and religions.

Two Argentine Jesuits, Fathers Renzo De Luca, the Jesuit Provincial, and Juan Carlos Haidar, professor of Sophia’s Faculty of Theology, took part in the meeting. They were seminarians when Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was the rector of the philosophy and theology faculty of the Jesuit San Miguel University, Buenos Aires.

The last question came from a student from Kobe City. He asked what image the pope has of Japan. The pope answered that he has the image of "people with ideals, with a profound religious capacity, that are hard-working, who have suffered a lot."

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