At 11:45am today, in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience some groups from the Policoro Project sponsored by the Italian Episcopal Conference.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome you all. Thank you for coming in such great numbers!
Twenty years ago, the Policoro Project was born, the fruit of the Ecclesial Convention held in Palermo. The Project came to light with a precise wish: to find answers to essential questions asked by many young people who are at risk of passing from a lack of work to a lack of life.
It its attempt to combine the gospel with the concreteness of life, this Project immediately represented a great initiative for promoting youth, a true occasion of local development at the national level. It's strong ideas characterized its success: the formation of youth, the launching of cooperatives, the creation of mediators such as community animators and a long series of concrete gestures, visible signs of your active presence and your commitment over these past twenty years.
With its concrete attention to the territory and its search for shared solutions, the Policoro Project has demonstrated how the quality of free, creative, participatory and solidaristic work expresses the dignity of human life and allows it to grow (cf Evangelii Gaudium, 192). We must never lose sight of the urgency to reaffirm this dignity! It is proper to each and to all of us. Every worker has the right to be protected, and in particular, young people must be able to develop and to trust that their strengths, their enthusiasm, the investment of their energies and of their resources will not be futile.
So many young people today are victims of unemployment! And when there is no work, dignity is at risk because the lack of work not only does not permit a person to be able to buy food for his household, it also doesn't allow that person to feel worthy of earning a living! Today, youth are victims of this reality. Many of them have already stopped looking for work, resigned to the continuous rejections or indifference of a society that places more value on the privileged - even if they should be corrupt - and impedes those who are worthy of affirming themselves. The prize seems to go to those who are sure of themselves, even though this security may have been acquired through corruption. Work is not a gift to be kindly granted to a few who are recommended: it is a right for everyone!
You certainly represent a concrete sign of hope for many who are not resigned, but who have decided to commit themselves courageously to creating or to bettering their own opportunities for work. My invitation is for you to continue promoting initiatives for youth involvement in a communitarian and participatory manner. There is often such great solitude hiding behind our work: at times our youth find themselves having to face thousands of difficulties, often with no one to help. The very families who support them - often also economically - cannot do too much, and many are forced to give up and become discouraged.
Here, you can do your part. To the question: What does the Church have to do with my situation? - which you have said and have experienced so many times - the response is your testimony. This is where you enter in, with our witness, one on one with those who need encouragement and support. Supporting the new energies often aimed at work; promoting a style of creativity that gathers minds and hands around the same table; thinking together, planning together, receiving together and providing help: these are the most efficient ways to express solidarity as a gift. This is where the Church enters in because she is our Mother! The Church finds a place for everyone at the table.
In this way, young people discover the vocation of work - the vocation of work which is one of the traits of human dignity; there is no such thing as a vocation to laziness, but to work -, the elevated sense of a commitment that also reaches beyond its economic result, to become an edification for the world, for society and for life. Often, the idea of work as the fulfillment of a person has been confused with a certain model of wealth and of well being that drives us at an inhumane pace. Let it not be so for you: it is better to teach younger generations to seek the just measure. At the school of the gospel, we learn that which is truly necessary, so that our lives will not slip from our hands as we follow the idols of a false sense of well being.
Therefore the right way to live is learned at the school of the gospel. It's true, Jesus never actually taught us how we should invent work possibilities for ourselves, but his words always speak to our experience; they are concrete, living, capable of touching all men and women. Today they speak also to us: exhorting us to use our ideas, our plans, our desires in order to work toward and to create good news for the world.
Your task is not simply to help young people to find occupations: it is also a responsibility to evangelize, through the sanctifying value of work. This is not just any work! This is not the work that exploits, that crushes, that humiliates, that mortifies, but the work that makes men and women truly free, in keeping with their noble dignity.
Thank you for your commitment. I entrust you to the intercession of Saint Joseph the Worker. May the merciful face of God, which constantly illuminated the Holy Family entrusted to his care, shine upon your journey and show you paths of creativity and hope. Your work is very close to my heart because I suffer when I see so many young people without work, unemployed. To think that here in Italy, among those under the age of 25 years, 40% of the youth are unemployed! What happens to a young person who has no work? He gets sick and needs to go to a psychiatrist, or he falls into addiction or commits suicide - the statistics concerning youth suicides are not published, but they find all kinds of excuses not to publish them - or he seeks something that will give him a sense of purpose, and becomes a guerrilla. Just think: these young people are our flesh, they are the flesh of Christ and for this reason our work must continue in order to accompany them and to suffer within ourselves the hidden, silent and anxious sufferings that take place within their hearts. I assure you of my prayer, you are very close: count on me for this, because this is dear to my heart. And please, don't forget to pray for me; even I need prayers.
Our Lady used to watch Saint Joseph as he taught Jesus how to work. Let us pray to Our Lady and ask her to teach us how to help others to find work, work for the young people.
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the meeting with groups from the Policoro Project
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome you all. Thank you for coming in such great numbers!
Twenty years ago, the Policoro Project was born, the fruit of the Ecclesial Convention held in Palermo. The Project came to light with a precise wish: to find answers to essential questions asked by many young people who are at risk of passing from a lack of work to a lack of life.
It its attempt to combine the gospel with the concreteness of life, this Project immediately represented a great initiative for promoting youth, a true occasion of local development at the national level. It's strong ideas characterized its success: the formation of youth, the launching of cooperatives, the creation of mediators such as community animators and a long series of concrete gestures, visible signs of your active presence and your commitment over these past twenty years.
With its concrete attention to the territory and its search for shared solutions, the Policoro Project has demonstrated how the quality of free, creative, participatory and solidaristic work expresses the dignity of human life and allows it to grow (cf Evangelii Gaudium, 192). We must never lose sight of the urgency to reaffirm this dignity! It is proper to each and to all of us. Every worker has the right to be protected, and in particular, young people must be able to develop and to trust that their strengths, their enthusiasm, the investment of their energies and of their resources will not be futile.
So many young people today are victims of unemployment! And when there is no work, dignity is at risk because the lack of work not only does not permit a person to be able to buy food for his household, it also doesn't allow that person to feel worthy of earning a living! Today, youth are victims of this reality. Many of them have already stopped looking for work, resigned to the continuous rejections or indifference of a society that places more value on the privileged - even if they should be corrupt - and impedes those who are worthy of affirming themselves. The prize seems to go to those who are sure of themselves, even though this security may have been acquired through corruption. Work is not a gift to be kindly granted to a few who are recommended: it is a right for everyone!
You certainly represent a concrete sign of hope for many who are not resigned, but who have decided to commit themselves courageously to creating or to bettering their own opportunities for work. My invitation is for you to continue promoting initiatives for youth involvement in a communitarian and participatory manner. There is often such great solitude hiding behind our work: at times our youth find themselves having to face thousands of difficulties, often with no one to help. The very families who support them - often also economically - cannot do too much, and many are forced to give up and become discouraged.
Here, you can do your part. To the question: What does the Church have to do with my situation? - which you have said and have experienced so many times - the response is your testimony. This is where you enter in, with our witness, one on one with those who need encouragement and support. Supporting the new energies often aimed at work; promoting a style of creativity that gathers minds and hands around the same table; thinking together, planning together, receiving together and providing help: these are the most efficient ways to express solidarity as a gift. This is where the Church enters in because she is our Mother! The Church finds a place for everyone at the table.
In this way, young people discover the vocation of work - the vocation of work which is one of the traits of human dignity; there is no such thing as a vocation to laziness, but to work -, the elevated sense of a commitment that also reaches beyond its economic result, to become an edification for the world, for society and for life. Often, the idea of work as the fulfillment of a person has been confused with a certain model of wealth and of well being that drives us at an inhumane pace. Let it not be so for you: it is better to teach younger generations to seek the just measure. At the school of the gospel, we learn that which is truly necessary, so that our lives will not slip from our hands as we follow the idols of a false sense of well being.
Therefore the right way to live is learned at the school of the gospel. It's true, Jesus never actually taught us how we should invent work possibilities for ourselves, but his words always speak to our experience; they are concrete, living, capable of touching all men and women. Today they speak also to us: exhorting us to use our ideas, our plans, our desires in order to work toward and to create good news for the world.
Your task is not simply to help young people to find occupations: it is also a responsibility to evangelize, through the sanctifying value of work. This is not just any work! This is not the work that exploits, that crushes, that humiliates, that mortifies, but the work that makes men and women truly free, in keeping with their noble dignity.
Thank you for your commitment. I entrust you to the intercession of Saint Joseph the Worker. May the merciful face of God, which constantly illuminated the Holy Family entrusted to his care, shine upon your journey and show you paths of creativity and hope. Your work is very close to my heart because I suffer when I see so many young people without work, unemployed. To think that here in Italy, among those under the age of 25 years, 40% of the youth are unemployed! What happens to a young person who has no work? He gets sick and needs to go to a psychiatrist, or he falls into addiction or commits suicide - the statistics concerning youth suicides are not published, but they find all kinds of excuses not to publish them - or he seeks something that will give him a sense of purpose, and becomes a guerrilla. Just think: these young people are our flesh, they are the flesh of Christ and for this reason our work must continue in order to accompany them and to suffer within ourselves the hidden, silent and anxious sufferings that take place within their hearts. I assure you of my prayer, you are very close: count on me for this, because this is dear to my heart. And please, don't forget to pray for me; even I need prayers.
Our Lady used to watch Saint Joseph as he taught Jesus how to work. Let us pray to Our Lady and ask her to teach us how to help others to find work, work for the young people.
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