At 11:30am today, in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience a group of young people from the Civil National Service fifteen years after the promulgation of the law that created the Service in Italy.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning.
We must not forget what was said by the Minister: social protection. The earthquake that has taken place here, close to us ... continue; protect those people and protect those who are in danger of a human earthquake, one that comes from within, those who are alone, abandoned, forgotten, in this culture that takes such pleasure in forgetting about people. Thank you, Mister Minister, for all of this and let us hope that your challenge is taken up by all of us. Thank you.
And I am happy to have this meeting, fifteen years after the promulgation of the law that instituted in Italy the National Civil Service. I greet the Minister, the Under-secretary and the other representatives of institutions, as well as those who are responsible for the promotion of projects and those who follow up on them. My greetings go out above all to you, dear young people, who have chosen to dedicate a part of your time and your lives to a project of volunteering and promoting society. The appreciation gained from volunteering, even for a determined length of time, is a treasure not only for society and for those who take joy in their work, but also for you yourselves as it helps you to grow and to mature.
You are a precious strength, a dynamic force for this country: your contribution is an indispensable part of achieving good in society, especially as you take into account the presence of the weak. The work of a united society is the aim of every civilized community that wishes to be egalitarian and fraternal. This ideal is betrayed every time that we witness passively the growth of inequality between various social groups or among different nations of the world; when we reduce opportunities to provide assistance to the weak without guaranteeing them other forms of protection; when we accept the dangerous logic of re-armaments and invest precious resources in order to acquire armaments - and this is currently a real wound - or when the poor become trapped and instead of holding out a helping hand, we abandon them to suffering.
All these attitudes represent an affront to our society and its culture, introducing criteria and practices that leave it marked by indifference and oppression, which make life more difficult not only for those who are forgotten or discriminated against, but also for those who forget and those who discriminate: attitudes that leave us closed off to the needs of others and incapable of meeting our brothers and sisters in the flesh. Such encounters are the only way for us to discover what is good. By means of your service, you are called to carry out a critical function in confronting these perspectives which are contrary to the natural human tendency, a prophetic function that demonstrates how it is possible to think and to act in different ways.
Special consideration should also be afforded to all the other educative and assistance programmes being carried out by the Italian Civil Service, through which, in various ways, you are close to children, young people, disabled persons, those who are marginalized and those who are in need of help. During these months therefore, an extraordinary commitment is being called for in order to assist the people who have become victims of earthquakes; to all of them I wish to renew my closeness and my encouragement. All these realities become for you opportunities for human growth and for sharing experiences, knowledge and sensitivity.
Dear young people, I hope that you will follow the path that gives you the fullest significance and joy in life. This path is not the same for everyone, but each person can find the one that is most suited to his or her personality, to his or her gifts, to his or her situation. However, there are common coordinates, without which you will always be unable to find them, and one of these coordinates is that of service. Surely the path of service runs against the dominant current, but in reality every one of us is content and fulfilled only when we are useful to someone else. This releases within us a new energy, it helps us to see that we are not alone and it expands our horizons. I invite you to continue along this path of service and to take as your perfect model of humanity Jesus himself, who always kept a place for others in his heart, even to the point of giving his life for us.
To the institutions, which I thank for their work in favour of youth who are involved in a year of volunteer service, I ask you to promote more and more a true spirit of solidarity within the people of this land. Such sensitivity becomes less and less occasional and and more and more structural, to the point of pervading all the actions of various public and private entities. In fact, the degree of civilization of a people is measured based on their capacity to respect and to promote the rights of every person, beginning with those who are weak.
I thank you for this gathering. I invoke over you and your work the blessings of the Lord, so that he may help you to always act boldly and unselfishly, looking into the distance toward the horizons of hope. And please, pray also for me. Thank you.
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to young people who are part of
the Civil National Service
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning.
We must not forget what was said by the Minister: social protection. The earthquake that has taken place here, close to us ... continue; protect those people and protect those who are in danger of a human earthquake, one that comes from within, those who are alone, abandoned, forgotten, in this culture that takes such pleasure in forgetting about people. Thank you, Mister Minister, for all of this and let us hope that your challenge is taken up by all of us. Thank you.
And I am happy to have this meeting, fifteen years after the promulgation of the law that instituted in Italy the National Civil Service. I greet the Minister, the Under-secretary and the other representatives of institutions, as well as those who are responsible for the promotion of projects and those who follow up on them. My greetings go out above all to you, dear young people, who have chosen to dedicate a part of your time and your lives to a project of volunteering and promoting society. The appreciation gained from volunteering, even for a determined length of time, is a treasure not only for society and for those who take joy in their work, but also for you yourselves as it helps you to grow and to mature.
You are a precious strength, a dynamic force for this country: your contribution is an indispensable part of achieving good in society, especially as you take into account the presence of the weak. The work of a united society is the aim of every civilized community that wishes to be egalitarian and fraternal. This ideal is betrayed every time that we witness passively the growth of inequality between various social groups or among different nations of the world; when we reduce opportunities to provide assistance to the weak without guaranteeing them other forms of protection; when we accept the dangerous logic of re-armaments and invest precious resources in order to acquire armaments - and this is currently a real wound - or when the poor become trapped and instead of holding out a helping hand, we abandon them to suffering.
All these attitudes represent an affront to our society and its culture, introducing criteria and practices that leave it marked by indifference and oppression, which make life more difficult not only for those who are forgotten or discriminated against, but also for those who forget and those who discriminate: attitudes that leave us closed off to the needs of others and incapable of meeting our brothers and sisters in the flesh. Such encounters are the only way for us to discover what is good. By means of your service, you are called to carry out a critical function in confronting these perspectives which are contrary to the natural human tendency, a prophetic function that demonstrates how it is possible to think and to act in different ways.
Special consideration should also be afforded to all the other educative and assistance programmes being carried out by the Italian Civil Service, through which, in various ways, you are close to children, young people, disabled persons, those who are marginalized and those who are in need of help. During these months therefore, an extraordinary commitment is being called for in order to assist the people who have become victims of earthquakes; to all of them I wish to renew my closeness and my encouragement. All these realities become for you opportunities for human growth and for sharing experiences, knowledge and sensitivity.
Dear young people, I hope that you will follow the path that gives you the fullest significance and joy in life. This path is not the same for everyone, but each person can find the one that is most suited to his or her personality, to his or her gifts, to his or her situation. However, there are common coordinates, without which you will always be unable to find them, and one of these coordinates is that of service. Surely the path of service runs against the dominant current, but in reality every one of us is content and fulfilled only when we are useful to someone else. This releases within us a new energy, it helps us to see that we are not alone and it expands our horizons. I invite you to continue along this path of service and to take as your perfect model of humanity Jesus himself, who always kept a place for others in his heart, even to the point of giving his life for us.
To the institutions, which I thank for their work in favour of youth who are involved in a year of volunteer service, I ask you to promote more and more a true spirit of solidarity within the people of this land. Such sensitivity becomes less and less occasional and and more and more structural, to the point of pervading all the actions of various public and private entities. In fact, the degree of civilization of a people is measured based on their capacity to respect and to promote the rights of every person, beginning with those who are weak.
I thank you for this gathering. I invoke over you and your work the blessings of the Lord, so that he may help you to always act boldly and unselfishly, looking into the distance toward the horizons of hope. And please, pray also for me. Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment