Faith For­ma­tion is a life­time jour­ney for every­one — at every age and stage of life. Since we believe that reli­gious for­ma­tion occurs within a fam­ily and com­mu­nity con­text, our thrust, edu­ca­tion­ally, is toward help­ing all become aware of their own iden­tity as bap­tized Chris­tians and mem­bers of a global com­mu­nity and to lead them to cel­e­brate this iden­tity. We see our direct for­mal edu­ca­tion of chil­dren as a com­ple­ment to this essen­tial respon­si­bil­ity of the fam­ily and community.

“The desire to see Jesus dwells deep in the heart of each man and each woman. My dear young peo­ple, allow Jesus to gaze into your eyes so that the desire to see the Light, and to expe­ri­ence the splen­dor of the Truth, may grow within you. Whether we are aware of it or not, God has cre­ated us because he loves us and so that we in turn may love him. This is the rea­son for the unquench­able nos­tal­gia for God that man pre­serves in his heart: “Your face, Lord, do I seek. Do not hide your face from me” (Ps 27: 8–9). That Face — we know — was revealed to us by God in Jesus Christ”

–John Paul II, Mes­sage for the 19th World Youth Day