ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS TO THE YOUNG PEOPLE OF THE “POLICORO PROJECT” OF THE ITALIAN EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE
Clementina room
[…] The second verb is to live. We ask you to show us that it is possible to
inhabit the world without stepping on it – this is important -: it would be a great
achievement for everyone! Living the earth does not mean first of all possessing
it, no, but knowing how to fully live relationships: relationships with God,
relationships with brothers, relationships with creation and with ourselves
(Encyclical Laudato si ‘, 210). I urge you to love the territories in which God has
placed you, avoiding the temptation to flee elsewhere. Indeed, the very
peripheries can become laboratories of fraternity. Experiments of inclusion often
arise from the peripheries: “in fact, something can be learned from everyone, no
one is useless, no one is superfluous” (Encyclical Lett. Fratelli tutti, 215). May
you help the Christian community to live the pandemic crisis with courage and
hope. God never abandons us and we can become a sign of his mercy if we
know how to bend over the poverty of our time: the young people who cannot
find work, the so-called Neet, those who suffer from depression, those who are
unmotivated, those who are tired in life, on those who have stopped dreaming of
a new world. And there are young people who have stopped dreaming. It is sad,
because a young person’s vocation is to dream. The Servant of God Giorgio La
Pira argued that unemployment is “a waste of productive forces”. […]
