(Vatican Radio) “I … want to reaffirm this forcefully: the Church has confidence in
young people, she hopes in them and in their energies, she needs them and their vitality,
to continue to live the mission entrusted her by Christ with renewed enthusiasm”.
This was Pope Benedict XVI’s message to young people Thursday, as he greeted participants
at the plenary session of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Emer McCarthy reports
Listen:
In
what has to be a first at the Vatican, the Plenary on “Emerging Youth Cultures” opened
Wednesday evening with a Rock Concert, attended by council members, delegates and
its President Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. The Italian group “The Sun” entertained
the audience in the Aula Magna of the LUMSA university campus. They later also took
part in a round table discussion led by French anthropologist David le Breton.
In
an attempt to further encourage new channels of dialogue between young people and
the Church, Card. Ravasi, is inviting young people to send questions and comments
on emerging youth cultures to him, for the duration of the Plenary, using the twitter
hashtag # Reply2Ravasi.
The Holy Father received participants in a private
audience Thursday the first full day of working sessions. In his address he spoke
of the current difficulties facing young people today, such as rising unemployment,
marginalization from society, the dangerous obsession with celebrity cultures and
growing tendencies towards individualism.
These phenomena he said are “effecting
people on a psychological and relational level”, the result of several factors, such
as social media, that are leading to an increasingly “fragmented, cultural landscape”.
Thus,
the Pope noted “the “uncertainty and fragility that characterize so many young people,
often pushes them to the margins, rendering them almost invisible and absent in the
cultural and historical processes of societies”. Even “the religious dimension, the
experience of faith and membership in the Church are often experienced in a private
and emotional perspective”.
At the same time the Holy Father warned against
a cliched view of youth cultures and noted their many “decidedly” positive aspects,
such as young people's generosity and courage in helping those most in need. Above
all he had a warning for wider society, not to clip the wings of the younger generation,
who are the passport to the future for both the Church and society:
He
concluded “If young people no longer had hopes, if they no longer progressed, if they
no longer infused historical dynamics with their energy, their vitality, their ability
to anticipate the future, we would find a humanity turned in on itself, lacking confidence
and a positive outlook towards the future”.
Below a Vatican Radio
translation of Pope Benedict XVI’s address [original Italian]
Dear
Friends,
I am delighted to meet you at the opening of the Plenary Assembly
of the Pontifical Council for Culture, during which you will focus on understanding
and deepening, from different perspectives, the "emerging youth cultures." I cordially
greet the President, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, and I thank him for his courteous
words addressed to me on behalf of you all. I greet the Members, the Consultors and
all of the dicastery employees, in the hope that your work will be fruitful and provide
a useful contribution to the Churches’ work in relation to the reality of youth; a
complex reality, as has been said, and one that can not be understood within a the
context of a culturally homogeneous universe, but with in a horizon that can be defined
as "multiverse", that is determined by a plurality of views, perspectives and strategies.
Therefore, it is appropriate to speak of "youth cultures", since the elements that
distinguish and differentiate the phenomena and cultural areas prevail, over those
which instead, they have in common. Several factors are in fact conspiring to draw
an increasingly fragmented, cultural landscape in constant and rapid evolution, to
which are social media, the new communication tools are no strangers given
that they facilitate and sometimes are the very cause of continuous and rapid changes
in mentality, customs, behaviour.
There is thus a climate of instability that
touches the cultural, as well as the political and economic spheres - the latter also
marked by young people’s difficulties in finding a job – mainly effecting people on
a psychological and relational level. The uncertainty and fragility that characterize
so many young people, often pushes them to the margins, rendering them almost invisible
and absent in the cultural and historical processes of societies. And more and more
frequently fragility and marginality result in the phenomena of drug addiction, deviance
and violence. The sentimental and emotional sphere, the sphere of feelings, as well
as the corporal sphere, are strongly affected by this climate and the cultural storms
that follow, expressed, for example, in apparently contradictory phenomena, such as
the celebrity obsession with personal lives and intimate relationships and the individualistic
and narcissistic focus on personal needs and interests. Even the religious dimension,
the experience of faith and membership in the Church are often experienced in a private
and emotional perspective.
There are, however, decidedly positive phenomena.
The generosity and courage of so many young volunteers who dedicate their best efforts
to others in need, the sincere and deep experiences of faith of many young boys and
girls who joyfully bear witness to their membership in the Church's efforts to build,
in many parts of the world, societies capable of respecting the freedom and dignity
of all, beginning with the smallest and weakest. All this comforts us and helps us
to draw a more precise and objective image of youth cultures. We can not, therefore,
content ourselves with a view of the phenomena of youth cultural dictated by established
paradigms, which have become clichés, analyze them with methods that are no longer
useful, such as outdated and inadequate cultural categories.
We are ultimately
faced with an extremely complex but fascinating reality, which must be thoroughly
understood and loved with a great spirit of empathy, whose bottom line and developments
we must carefully grasp. Looking, for example, at the young people in many countries
of the so-called "Third World", we realize that they represent, their cultures and
their needs, a challenge to the global consumer society, to the culture of established
privileges, which benefits a small group of the population of the western world. Youth
cultures, as a result, "emerge" in the sense that exhibit a deep need, a call for
help or even a "provocation" that can not be ignored or neglected, both by civil society
or the ecclesial community. I have often expressed, for example, my concern and that
of the whole Church for the so-called "educational emergency", which certainly is
one among other "emergencies" that affect the different dimensions of the person and
fundamental relationships and which can not be answered in an evasive and trite manner.
I think, for example, of growing difficulties in the field of work or the effort it
takes to remain faithful to the responsibilities we have taken on over time. An impoverishment,
not only economic and social but also human and spiritual would follow, for the future
of the world and of all humanity: If young people no longer had hopes, if they no
longer progressed, if they no longer infused historical dynamics with their energy,
their vitality, their ability to anticipate the future, we would find a humanity turned
in on itself, lacking confidence and a positive outlook towards the future.
Although
we are aware of the many problematic situations, which also affect the area of faith
and membership of the Church, we renew our faith in the youth, to reaffirm that the
Church sees their condition, their cultures, as an essential and unavoidable point
of reference for her pastoral work. For this reason I would like to retrace some significant
passages from the Message that the Second Vatican Council addressed to young
people, as a grounds for reflection and inspiration for new generations. First it
was stated: "The Church looks to you with confidence and love ... She possesses what
constitutes the strength and the charm of youth, that is to say, the ability to rejoice
with what is beginning, to give oneself unreservedly, to renew oneself and to set
out again for new conquests". The Venerable Paul VI addressed this appeal to the youth
of the world "it is in the name of this God and of His Son, Jesus, that we exhort
you to open your hearts to the dimensions of the world, to heed the appeal of your
brothers, to place your youthful energies at their service. Fight against all egoism.
Refuse to give free course to the instincts of violence and hatred which beget wars
and all their train of miseries. Be generous, pure, respectful, and sincere, and build
in enthusiasm a better world than your elders had".
I also want to reaffirm
this forcefully: the Church has confidence in the youth, she hopes in them and in
their energies, she needs them and their vitality, to continue to live the mission
entrusted her by Christ with renewed enthusiasm. I very much hope, therefore, that
the Year of Faith be, even for the younger generation, a precious opportunity to rediscover
and strengthen our friendship with Christ, which brings forth joy and enthusiasm to
profoundly transform cultures and society.
Dear friends, thank you for the
effort which you generously place at the service of the Church, and for your special
attention towards young people, upon you all I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing.