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Pope Francis’ message to the leadership summit
of the San Carlo College in Milan
[Milan, 13-14 October 2023]
“Always compare your dreams with God’s dreams for you!”
Dear young people!
I have heard that the Leadership Summit is taking place in the San Carlo College in Milan, and I would like to address you with a brief reflection.
At this time, marked by serious social and climatic crises, you are asking yourselves, together with your teachers and educators, how you can change the world. This is very positive.
It is important that you have big dreams: God has them too!
And it is important to meet adults who will not extinguish your dreams, who help you to interpret them and make them come true. Always compare your dreams with God’s dreams for you!
So, if you want to be protagonists of change, I invite you to discover the infinite fascination of Jesus. He makes everything new. He reveals an authority different from that shown by the powerful of yesterday and of today. His is a way of transforming situations that does not overwhelm but uplifts, that does not constrain but liberates.
Jesus transforms man from within, including each one of you, so that you can express your best energies and the talents and make them bear fruit.
Follow him with full confidence, thinking of your growth not as raising yourself above others, but as lowering yourself to serve others. The greatest is he who knows how to bend down to those who stumble, and to take on some of their burdens, with a tenderness that is true strength.
I have seen that you want to be protagonists, making the most of the five senses that God has given you. This is wise, because reality is superior to ideas, and requires openness, attention, compassion; it requires an all-round “sensitivity”. Allow me to remind you that what the Masters of Wisdom call the “spiritual senses” form part of this sensibility.
They do not oppose the psycho-physical senses, but rather enlighten them and strengthen them. I tell you this because yours is a Catholic educational institution, and “Catholic” means precisely that it has an open and integral vision of the human person in all his or her dimensions, as revealed to us by Sacred Scripture and as fully realized by Jesus Christ.
Dear students, cherish the opportunities that the school offers you!
They are not to be taken for granted. Many of your peers around the world, especially girls, do not even have the opportunity to study. Strive for them too, and fight for their rights as well.
Faith is a flame that grows stronger the more it is shared and passed on, so that everyone may know, love and confess Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and history
Thank you for your commitment. I cordially bless you, your teachers and educators, and your families. May St. Charles and the Virgin Mary help you to feel the joy of the Gospel and to try to embody it in your lives. Please, do not forget to pray for me.
Rome, Saint John Lateran, 19 September 2023
FRANCIS
