Pope launches Scholas International, says girls must be educated (Vatican News)

Joined by the Irish singer Bono, Pope Francis launched the papal educational foundation Scholas Occurrentes as an international movement and emphasized girls’ education and the implementation of Laudato si’, his 2015 encyclical on care for our common home.

During the meeting with young people who are developing “projects with socio-environmental impact in their communities,” Pope Francis said that “women know more about harmony than we men do. And Scholas, organized in this way, with this fraternity between you, has the capacity to create poetry and to bring about change.”

“We usually speak of ‘Mother Earth,’ not ‘Father Earth,’” the Pope added. “From the moment of the apple [in the Garden of Eden], they [women] are in charge.”