25th Anniversary of the Founding of Itaka-Escolapios

We still vividly remember the meeting of the General Congregation of the Order, the General Council of the Fraternity, and the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee of Itaka-Escolapios, held in Rome on March 5 and 6, 2026. There is no doubt that it was an emotional and meaningful time, dedicated to intense dialogue, listening to one another, and exchanging impressions. During that meeting, we reflected on and discussed, among other things:

What do we expect from the Itaka-Escolapios Network?

What do we believe should be the place of the Itaka-Escolapios Network within the Order as a whole, based on its identity?

How do others see us/how do we see ourselves, and how do we evaluate ourselves at this moment?

What key issues, lines of action, strategies, policies, progress, bottlenecks, and setbacks would we highlight?

In appreciation of the final statement from this meeting that we have just received, the General Council of the Fraternity would like to share some reflections on the following questions:

What role does Itaka-Escolapios play in building the future of the Pious Schools?

What is the vision for Itaka-Escolapios 25 years from now?

We believe that:

1. Itaka-Escolapios is the platform that undoubtedly aids in the development of the Pious Schools in many areas: in mission, in clarifying concepts, in volunteer work, and in participation. We must position it as a qualified tool in this priority, which is the building of the Pious Schools.
2. The Order and the Fraternity promote the Itaka-Escolapios Network and place it in the spaces where it can offer its richness and contribution to the good of the mission and the priorities of the Pious Schools.
3. We must be clear about the identity of Itaka-Escolapios as a structure and a dynamic for building the Pious Schools created between the Order and the Fraternity.
4. Itaka-Escolapios is a treasure of the Pious Schools; to the extent that we advance in the choices of Participation, the contribution of this network will be progressively enhanced.
5. Itaka-Escolapios contributes generously and devotedly to Calasanz’s dream; his struggle, like that of so many religious and laypeople, takes on meaning when we perceive and embrace the good fruits it has offered and continues to offer.
6. A positive contribution from Itaka-Escolapios is an organizational model that, from its very origins, responds to a synodal vision. It also fosters the synodal journey among different regions and cultures.
7. Itaka-Escolapios has promoted and continues to promote a better Piarist laity and a better Piarist religious. A Piarist laity that is more Piarist, more committed, more aware of its mission, more active, and more mature, with the opportunity to grow in its lay mission. It also fosters better religious vocations—more Piarist, less clerical, more communal, and more fraternal.
8. The Network makes a decisive contribution to issues such as integral sustainability, team organization, collaborative work between religious and laypeople, management, resources, financial transparency, systematization, formation, volunteerism, identity, projects, missions, schools, and fostering a sense of belonging to the Pious Schools.

The President of the Itaka-Escolapios Network, in his address during the 5th Advisory Council held in Rome in May 2024, said: Sometimes we are asked why the Itaka-Escolapios Network is necessary if we already have the Order, which is already a network that reaches everyone, and not just some Provinces and Fraternities like Itaka-Escolapios.

And the question is well-founded because it is true that the Order, with its Demarcations, could also take on the entire mission that is currently carried out by the Itaka-Escolapios Network. But the Fraternity would be relegated to a secondary and dependent role, thus losing the richness of participation, of vocational complementarity, of the initiatives that arise from the Fraternity, of the integral sustainability that comes from a strong connection between more people and more visions and possibilities within the Piarist project... and we would lose much of our capacity for mission.

The richness and contribution of Itaka-Escolapios have helped ensure the Fraternity’s proper place in the life of each district and the still-emerging development of the Model of Presence.

When we analyze in greater detail the measures adopted by Itaka-Escolapios regarding its contribution to issues such as volunteering and identity, the wide variety and timeliness of its social awareness campaigns stand out—solidarity always at the forefront and in tune with the times. To avoid stopping at mere words, let us recall some of them:

25 Years of Putting Down Roots

Opening Paths

Somewhere in the World

One Voice, a Million Changes

Education Multiplies the Future

or Peace Weeks organized by Itaka-Escolapios:

You Are the Change

Peace Is in Your Hands

My Place Is the World, My Place Is Peace.

In our work with young people, we strive to listen to emerging needs and seek answers to complex issues that arise and to which we must respond. And here the invaluable Itaka-Escolapios comes to our aid, with the immense sensitivity with which it acts, always responding flexibly to the needs and challenges of our time, with its ability to adapt to different situations and respecting the diversity of each place within the Piarist network.

We, from the Fraternity—which, as Father Juan Alfonso Serra, president of the Itaka-Escolapios Network, stated in his January 2026 letter, forms part of the soul of the Itaka-Escolapios Network—hope to continue together opening paths of light, peace, justice, and hope; we hope to continue learning to be salt and light in the world; we hope to continue fighting for a more fraternal, more just, and more humane world.

As the lyrics of that beautiful song from the 2025 Itaka-Piarists campaign in Zaragoza said, we educate in hope, sowing enthusiasm, opening paths of hope, we build bridges, we break down barriers, Calasanz guides us with strength and love, amid laughter and hugs, let us keep walking. May it be so!

In his latest Salutatio, Father General quoted the classics, according to whom good, by its very nature, tends to spread. Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Congo, Cuba, Spain, the United States, the Philippines, India, Senegal, Venezuela—in total, 19 countries where we are present, more than 360 projects, a wide variety of fields of action—from volunteering, support for schools, education for social transformation, non-formal education centers, homes, boarding schools, and residences to schools for educators and training—placing care, rights, and the dignity of people at the center. Is this not precisely the good that spreads?

The day before yesterday, March 12, 2026, Itaka-Escolapios Bilbao experienced a very special day—a day of training and reflection, celebration, remembrance, and gratitude. Among the themes around which the presentations and reflections were centered were the following: Weaving Rights That Transform Lives and Making the Invisible Visible. This is how Itaka-Escolapios operates, always striving to discern what the Lord is asking of us in the challenges of our time, updating the charism and mission of Saint Joseph Calasanz: evangelizing, educational, and transformative of society, providing us with educational resources related to the most current issues such as peace, sustainability, interculturality, or the fight against exclusion, fully aware that we live in a socioeconomic system that fosters exclusion and that we have a duty to be activists against exclusion, seeking a society in which everyone has equal access to opportunities and resources to build a more just and sustainable world.

Let us give thanks to God for these 25 years of Itaka-Escolapios, acknowledging their extraordinary work in the service of so many children and young people, in the service of education, solidarity, and the Gospel throughout the world.

We turn to Saint Joseph Calasanz and the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Pious Schools, to help and guide us in remaining faithful to whatever the Spirit may ordain for the Itaka-Escolapios Network and for the Pious Schools.

Illona Rudka

In Krakow, March 14, 2026