Dear readers, the number of Believe On newsstands from today is a small “special” dedicated to young people, near the dedicated jubilee, which starts on July 28 and will end on August 3. You will find a series of services that give us a little a picture, rich and multifaceted, that invites us to rejoice, to reflect, to question us as a Christian community. The cover service is dedicated to the story of Sofia Gentile, a young standard bearer of the Republic, protagonist of a social inclusion project. His story tells us that there are not only the Neets or the hikikomori, but that there are also young people who take the life of chest, question themselves, undertake paths, try with determination to understand who they are and what their place is in the world.
A story that has all the freshness and enthusiasm of which only young people are capable, open as they are to dreams and the future. We will also hear the voice of two “adults”: Don Antonio Mazzi, the 95 -year -old “street” priest with a young heart, who knows how to scrutinize the new generations and their “empty”. And he knows how to identify important words on the meaning to be given to life. But, looking at young people, it also questions us adults in a scratchy way. The other voice is that of a scholar, Rita Bichi, who together with Paola Bignardi has conducted an important sociological research on young people, religiosity and faith. From his words a portrait of a generation comes out that has not thrown spiritual research to the sea, but lives it with another sensitivity and other expectations. Adults – and also the Christian community – struggle to decipher this unexpressed inner world and who asks for welcome. Here too, we adults are called into question: humbly listening is the first step to try to equip themselves in order to offer sensible (and not pre -packaged) proposals.
We then have the story of an experience of temporary coexistence of young people, in Rezzato (Brescia): It is a reality that is taking hold in various Italian dioceses, which says the importance of walking together by experimenting with faithful paths based on sharing, fraternity and service to others. You will then find three figures (an adult and two young people) who give voice to themes very felt by the new generations: inclusion, created, peace. And finally, we are talking about a “inheritance” left by a young saint, Piergiorgio Frassati, who will be canonized on September 7 and who inspired Antonello Sica, 30 years ago, the ideation of mountain paths that combine nature, spirituality and history. I would like to conclude with the words with which Pope Francis opened the post-senodal exhortation Christus Vivit, from 2019, the result of the Synod of young people: «Christ lives. He is our hope and the most beautiful youth of this world.
Everything he touches becomes young, becomes new, fills himself with life. Therefore, the first words I want to address to each young Christian are: he lives and wants to live you! ». Life/living: It is the synthesis of what God wants for everyone and each one. “I came because they have life and have it in abundance” (John 10:10). It is the most beautiful wish we can do to our boys for this Jubilee 2025.
(Image at the top: Photo Reuters)
