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Image: Pier Giorgio Frassati (6 April 1901 – 4 July 1925)
Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to the young people of Italian Catholic Action
Paul VI Audience Hall – Saturday, 29 October 2022
“you want to contribute to the growth of the Church in fraternity”
Dear young people of Catholic Action,
I tell you right away that I greatly appreciate the fact that you care about the parish.
It is close to my heart too! The parish. There are movements, there are things that rotate… The parish: the root is in the parish. But I am from another generation. I was born and raised in a different social and ecclesial context, when the parish – with its parish priest – was a central point of reference for people’s lives: Sunday Mass, catechesis, the sacraments… The socio-cultural reality in which you live has changed a lot, we know that; and for some time now – first in other countries, then also in Italy – the mission of the Church has been rethought, in particular the parish. But, in all this, one essential thing remains: for us, for me and for you, for our journey of faith and growth, the parish experience has been and is important, irreplaceable. It is the “normal” environment where we have learned to listen to the Gospel, to know the Lord Jesus, to offer a service with gratuitousness, to pray in community, to share projects and initiatives, to feel part of the holy people of God.
You have also lived all this through Catholic Action, that is, an associative experience that is, so to speak, “intertwined” with that of the parish community. Some of you I imagine have been part of an ACR group, the Catholic Action of Children; And there you already learn so much about what it means to be part of a Christian community: to participate, to share, to collaborate and to pray together.
This is very important: to learn through experience that in the Church we are all brothers and sisters for Baptism; that we are all protagonists and responsible; that we have different gifts and all for the good of the community; that life is a vocation, following Jesus; that faith is a gift to be given, a gift to be witnessed. And then, again: that the Christian is interested in social reality and makes his own contribution; that our motto is not “I don’t care”, but “I care!“. The disease of indifference in young people is more dangerous than cancer.
Please be careful! We have learned that human misery is not a destiny that falls to some unfortunate, but almost always the fruit of injustices to be eradicated. And so on, we learned all these things. These realities of life are often learned in the parish and in Catholic Action. How many young people have been formed at this school! How many have given their witness both in the Church and in society, in the various vocations and above all as lay faithful, who have carried on, as adults and the elderly, the lifestyle matured as young people in the parish.
Therefore, dear young people, we are of different generations, but we have in common love for the Church and passion for the parish, which is the Church in the midst of homes, in the midst of the people. And on the basis of this passion I would like to share with you some emphasis, trying to tune in with your journey and your commitment.
First of all, you want to contribute to the growth of the Church in fraternity. Thank you! We are perfectly tuned on this. Yes, but how to do it? First of all, do not be frightened if – as you have noticed – in the communities you see that the community dimension is a little weak. It is a very important thing, but do not be afraid, because it is a social fact, which has worsened with the pandemic.
Today, especially young people, are extremely different from 50 years ago: there is no longer the desire to hold meetings, debates, assemblies...
On the one hand, it is a good thing, also for you: Catholic Action must not be a Catholic “session”, and the Church does not go ahead with meetings!
But, on the other hand, individualism, closure in private or small groups, the tendency to relate “at a distance” also infect Christian communities. If we occur, we are all somewhat influenced by this selfish culture. So you have to react, and you too can do it by starting with work on yourself.
And I say a “job” because it is a demanding journey and requires constancy. Fraternity is not improvised and is not built only with emotions, slogans, events… No, fraternity is a work that each one does on himself together with the Lord, with the Holy Spirit, who creates harmony among diversities. I advise you to reread that part of the Exhortation Christus vivit entitled “Paths of Fraternity”. These are few numbers: from 163 to 167 (see footnote below). I recommend, read it. The starting point is to come out of oneself in order to open oneself to others and to go out to them (cf. n. 163). The Spirit of the Risen Jesus works this: he brings us out of ourselves, opens us to encounter. Attention! It is not alienation, no, it is relationship, in which we recognize ourselves and grow together. The fundamental reality for us is that in the Church we live this movement in Christ, through the Eucharist: he comes out of himself and comes into us so that we come out of ourselves and unite ourselves to him, and in him we find ourselves in a new, free, gratuitous, self-giving communion. Fraternity in the Church is founded in Christ, in his presence in us and among us. Thanks to him we welcome each other, we endure each other – Christian love is built on bearing with each other – and we forgive each other. I’ll stop there. You understand me well, they are realities that you live, they are yours, our joy!
Gossip
And here I stop on a point that for me is like the most serious illness in a parish community: gossip. The chatter that is always done as a tool for climbing, promotion, self-promotion: dirtying the other so that I can go further. Please, gossip is not Christian, it is diabolical because it divides. Be careful, you young people, please. Let’s leave this for spinsters… Never chat about another. And if you have one thing against the other, go and say it to your face; Be a man, be a woman: in the face, always. Sometimes then you will receive a punch, but you have told the truth, you have said it to your face with fraternal charity. Please, hidden criticism is the devil’s thing. If you want to criticize, all together, criticize each other, but not outside, against you.
And with these things I said you can understand in what sense Christians become “leaven” in society: if a Christian is in Christ, if he is a brother in the Lord, if he is animated by the Spirit, he cannot but be leaven where he lives. He can be leaven of humanity, because Jesus Christ is the perfect Man and his Gospel is a humanizing power. I really like an expression that you use: “being kneaded in this world”. It is the principle of incarnation, the path of Jesus: to bring new life from within, not from without, no, from within. But on one condition, however, that would seem obvious but is not: that leaven/yeast is leaven, that salt is salt, that light is light. But if yeast is something else, it doesn’t work. If salt is something else, it does not work. If the light is darkness, it doesn’t work. Otherwise, if, being in the world, we become worldly, we lose the newness of Christ and have nothing more to say or to give. And here comes your other expression that struck me: “to be credible responsible young believers”. This is what Jesus says when, on the one hand, he affirms: “You are the salt of the earth”, and then immediately warns: be careful not to lose the flavor! (cf. Mt 5:13).
Be careful: “when I was a boy, when I was a girl, I was a good one, from Catholic Action, I was going on, everywhere … Now lukewarm, lukewarm, one who does not make himself heard, a spiritually boring and bored person, who has no strength to carry on the Gospel”. Be careful: that the salt remains salt, that the yeast remains leaven, that the light remains light!
Responsible, credible young believers: this is what I wish for you. This could also become a formula, a “way of saying”. But it is not so, because these words are incarnated in the saints, in the young saints! Mother Church offers us many (young) saints, we think – limiting ourselves only to a few Italians – of Francis and Clare of Assisi, Rosa da Viterbo, Gabriele dell’Addolorata, Domenico Savio, Gemma Galgani, Maria Goretti, Pier Giorgio Frassati, Chiara Badano, Carlo Acutis. They teach us what it means to be leaven, to be in the world, not of the world. Pier Giorgio Frassati was an active and enthusiastic member of Italian Catholic Action, in particular of FUCI, and shows how one can be credible responsible young believers, happy, smiling believers. Woe to the young people with the face of a funeral vigil: they have lost everything.
Dear friends, there would be so many things we could share about parish life and witness in society. But we don’t have the time – nor do we have the patience to keep talking! –. I would like to add just one suggestion, which also comes to me from the fact that October is the month of the Rosary: learn from the Virgin Mary to guard and meditate in your heart on the life of Jesus, the mysteries of Jesus. Reflect yourselves every day in the joyful, luminous, sorrowful, glorious events of his life, and they will enable you to live the ordinary in an extraordinary way, that is, with the newness of the Spirit, with the newness of the Gospel.
Thank you for coming and thank you for your testimony! Go forward with joy and courage. I cordially bless you and all the young people of Catholic Action. Have a good journey in your parishes and knead like leaven in the world! And please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you!
Footnote: Christus Vivit – Paths of fraternity – (163-167)
163. Your spiritual growth is expressed above all by your growth in fraternal, generous and merciful love. Saint Paul prayed: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all” (1 Thes 3:12). How wonderful it would be to experience this “ecstasy” of coming out of ourselves and seeking the good of others, even to the sacrifice of our lives.
164. When an encounter with God is called an “ecstasy”, it is because it takes us out of ourselves, lifts us up and overwhelms us with God’s love and beauty. Yet we can also experience ecstasy when we recognize in others their hidden beauty, their dignity and their grandeur as images of God and children of the Father. The Holy Spirit wants to make us come out of ourselves, to embrace others with love and to seek their good. That is why it is always better to live the faith together and to show our love by living in community and sharing with other young people our affection, our time, our faith and our troubles. The Church offers many different possibilities for living our faith in community, for everything is easier when we do it together.
165. Hurts you have experienced might tempt you to withdraw from others, to turn in on yourself and to nurse feelings of anger, but never stop listening to God’s call to forgiveness. The Bishops of Rwanda put it well: “In order to reconcile with another person, you must first of all be able to see the goodness in that person, the goodness God created him with… This requires great effort to distinguish the offence from the offender; it means you hate the offence the person has committed, but you love the person despite his weakness, because in him you see the image of God”.[89]
166. There are times when all our youthful energy, dreams and enthusiasm can flag because we are tempted to dwell on ourselves and our problems, our hurt feelings and our grievances. Don’t let this happen to you! You will grow old before your time. Each age has its beauty, and the years of our youth need to be marked by shared ideals, hopes and dreams, great horizons that we can contemplate together.
167. God loves the joy of young people. He wants them especially to share in the joy of fraternal communion, the sublime joy felt by those who share with others, for “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7). Fraternal love multiplies our ability to experience joy, since it makes us rejoice in the good of others: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Rom 12:15). May your youthful spontaneity increasingly find expression in fraternal love and a constant readiness to forgive, to be generous, and to build community. As an African proverb says: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of fraternity.
