Fernando Moita calls education "the great task of humanity"

Fernando Moita, director of the National Secretariat for Christian Education (SNEC), described education as the great task of humanity during a symposium in Lisbon on October 1, 2026. Moita stated that education is a shared responsibility among the Church, the country, and society, and emphasized the need to maintain this social commitment.

The symposium, titled "Traçar Mapas Educativos para uma Magnífica Humanização," brought together more than 400 participants. The event was organized by the SNEC, the Associação Portuguesa das Escolas Católicas, the Instituto Religare, and the Faculdade de Teologia of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

Organizers used the gathering to mark 40 years since the 1986 approval of the Lei de Bases do Sistema Educativo. The program also referenced the educational pact proposed by Pope Francis and an encyclical published in May by Pope Leo XIV regarding the human person in the age of artificial intelligence. The symposium sought to find ways to promote humanization within school communities while facing challenges from artificial intelligence.