How I dream Itaka-Escolapios in 25 years

First of all, I would like to thank the many people who, in such a discreet way, have contributed—whether in a decisive or more modest capacity—to making these 25 years possible. I also extend my gratitude to Juan Alfonso, president of Itaka-Escolapios, the Executive Committee, and Igor, its Director, for organizing and preparing this gathering.

This is a dream born of gratitude. Twenty-five years ago, Itaka-Escolapios was born from a very simple and prophetic intuition: to live the charism of Calasanz together, Order and Fraternity, laywomen, laymen, and religious; people from many countries, cultures, and contexts.

It was not just an organizational structure; it was a new way of living the Piarist mission.

Today we celebrate that journey with gratitude, but an anniversary is not just about remembrance; above all, it serves to ask ourselves what we are called to be, how do we envision Itaka-Escolapios in 25 years?

I’ll share my dreams for 7 minutes—I think I’ll get through four…

1. I dream of a network that generates Piarist life.

The Declaration, drafted on March 6, 2026, which we have been working on these past few days in San Pantaleo, says something very important: It is not enough to maintain (care for) what already exists. We must generate new Piarist life.

That is why the first dream would be this: May Itaka-Escolapios increasingly become a generator of life.

In 25 years, I dream of a network that gives birth to new Piarist presences; that launches projects in new peripheries; that creates vibrant Christian communities and that awakens religious and lay vocations.

Itaka-Escolapios has never been just a platform: It is a matrix of Piarist life, a place where mission generates community, and where community generates mission.

I also dream of a network that listens deeply to the Spirit and to reality, that discerns together where God is calling us. A network where we know how to listen to one another: religious and laypeople, communities and ministries, young people and adults.

Because when we listen together, the Spirit opens new paths. Then the mission ceases to be merely an activity and becomes Christian life that is born, grows, and multiplies.

2. I dream of a network that transforms and is present in the peripheries.

If anything characterizes the Gospel, it is the place where Jesus positions himself, always close to those who need him most. That is why I dream of an Itaka-Escolapios that is increasingly present on the peripheries: on the social peripheries, at the frontiers of education, in the places where children and youth are most vulnerable, where education can change the course of a life. Calasanz understood this with striking clarity.

In 25 years, I would like someone to be able to say: If you want to find Itaka-Escolapios, look where children need hope the most. It will be there.

3. I dream of a global network capable of transforming itself to serve better

Today, Itaka-Escolapios is already an international network; but in 25 years, I dream of something even more powerful. A network deeply interconnected across continents, cultures, and generations.

A network where projects, resources, and dreams flow; where Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe enrich one another; where no one walks alone. Because when the mission is lived as a network, the charism becomes stronger, more creative, and more universal.

I also dream of a network that has the inner freedom to transform itself, a network capable of reading the signs of the times and of places, capable of continually asking itself: What is the Spirit asking of us? What is reality asking of us today? What do children and young people need today?

A network with agility, shared responsibility, and vision, not absorbed in its structures, but open to rethinking itself to serve better. Because the center is not the network: As with Jesus and Calasanz, the center is the mission.

And the mission is not ours either. It is the Piarist charism, which the Church received through Saint Joseph Calasanz and which transcends us all. We are simply servants, bearers of that gift.

When education is lived this way, in communion and as a network, its capacity to transform the world is amplified.

4. The deepest dream.

But perhaps the deepest dream is not strategic; it is spiritual.

In 25 years, I dream of an Itaka-Escolapios that continues to have the heart of the Gospel, a passion for children, missionary boldness, and the joy of fraternity.

If in 25 years we still have that, everything else will follow.

Calasanz discovered that giving an opportunity, no matter how small, to children, girls, young people, and their families… transforms the world.

25 years ago, Itaka-Escolapios was born to live out that mission together. In 25 years, I hope we can say that this small intuition became a GREAT NETWORK OF HOPE for many children and young people around the world, and that we continue to walk, humbly, in the same dream of Calasanz.

Carles Gil i Saguer, SchP

Father General

March 14, 2026