Francis with 300 young people from all over the world, “We live in a culture that idolizes youth”, “the unemployed are depressed and commit suicide or enlist in ISIS”. Then he invites us to take risks: “An institution that does not take risks, remains a child”.

“Speak boldly, do not be ashamed.” Pope Francis opens the pre-synodal meeting of young people by inviting the over 300 young people, who have come to Rome from all continents, to “have the guts”, and stresses that we live in a culture that “idolizes youth” but “excludes many young people from being protagonists”, as shown by the many unemployed young people who end up depressed, committing suicide or enlisting in ISIS. Young people ask the Church for “closeness”, and the Church must listen to them, even if “sometimes young people are not the Nobel prize for prudence”, because “a man or a woman who does not take risks, does not mature, an institution that makes choices so as not to risk, remains a child, they do not grow”.

“It is necessary - the Pope said in a speech he often enriched with spontaneous words - to bring out what each of you, and each of us, have in our hearts. Talk bravely, don’t be ashamed. We shall leave shame behind the door, here. Here, you shall speak bravely: say what you feel, and if someone feels offended, ask forgiveness and move on. You know how to speak like this. But listen with humility. If someone I don’t like is speaking, I must listen to them more because everyone has the right to be heard as everyone has the right to speak”.

Your contribution, the Pope continued addressing the young people, “is indispensable, we need you to prepare for the Synod that will gather the Bishops in October on the theme “Young people, faith and vocational discernment”. In many moments in the history of the Church, as well as in numerous biblical episodes, God wanted to speak through the youngest ones: I am thinking, for example, of Samuel, David and Daniel. I like Samuel very much when he hears the voice of God, the Bible says: “At that time there was no habit of hearing the voice of God, people were disoriented. It was a young man who opened that door. In difficult times, the Lord makes history go forward with the young. They tell the truth. They are not ashamed... I’m not saying that they are shameless, but they are not ashamed and they tell the truth. And young David begins with that courage, and with his own sins: all of them were not born saints, righteous, models of others, they were all men and women who had sinned, but who felt the desire to do something good, God pushed them and they went forward: and this is beautiful. You, young people have so much strength to do so many things: laugh, cry: we adults have forgotten how to cry... we are used to it, “this is how the world is, let them figure it out...”. For this reason, I urge you: be brave in these days, say everything that comes to your mind, if you make a mistake someone else will correct you”.

“Thank you for having accepted the invitation, some of you have had to make a long trip, the ones are connected online instead of going to sleep will “pull an all-nighter” listening: now they are 15340, hopefully tomorrow will be more. You come from many parts of the world and bring with you a great variety of peoples, cultures and even religions: you are not all Catholics and Christians, not even all believers, but you are certainly all animated by the desire to give the best of you. And I have no doubt about that,” the Pope said.

“Too often - Jorge Mario Bergoglio stressed - we talk about young people without asking them first. When someone wants to campaign, they praise young people but they don’t let young people ask question: flattering is a way of satisfying people. But people are no fools or dumb or stupid, people understand. Only the fools do not understand: in Spanish, there is a beautiful saying: “flatter the fool and you will see them work”, because they are fools, they do not notice, but you are no fools! Even the best surveys on the world of youth, while useful – Francis continued - do not replace the need for face-to-face meetings. Look at how many articles, how many conferences there are on youth today: but I want to tell you one thing: youth does not exist, young people exist with their stories, faces, looks and illusions. Young people. exists. Talking about youth is easy, you make percentage abstractions, but what does your heart say? Talk, and hear young people out. And sometimes young people are not the Nobel Prize for prudence - said the Pope amidst the laughter of those present - sometimes they speak like a slap in the face, but one must listen. Some people think it would be easier to keep you “at a safe distance” so to not be provoked by you. But it’s not enough to exchange messages or share nice photos. Young people must be taken seriously!”

“It seems to me that we are surrounded by a culture that, if on the one hand it idolizes perennial youth - the Argentine Pontiff stressed - on the other, it excludes many young people from being protagonists. It’s the “make-up” philosophy, people growing up put on make up to look younger, and yet don’t let the young grow up. They do not let themselves be questioned. You are often marginalized from public life and you find yourself begging for jobs that do not guarantee you a future. I don’t know if this happens in all your countries but it does in many. If I am not mistaken, the youth unemployment rate here in Italy for 25-year-old, and up is around 35%, in another European country that borders Italy it is 47%, and in another more than fifty. What does a young person who cannot find a job do? They fall ill, get depressed fall into addiction, commit suicide... it’s curious that the statistics of juvenile suicide are all rigged... they commit suicide, are rebels, or take a plane and go to a city that I don’t want to name and enlists in Isis or another of these guerrilla movements to give a purpose to their life and have a monthly salary. And this is a social sin and society is responsible for it: I would like you to tell us the causes, the reasons: I do not know them well, but it would help us so much to know how you live this drama. Too often you are left alone. But the truth is that you are culture crafters with your style and your originality, you are able to build a culture that goes unseen yet goes forward.

“This - the Pope said - is a space to feel your culture. In doesn’t have to be so in the church. To close the door and not feel. The Gospel asks us to do this: its message of proximity invites us to meet and confront one another, to welcome and love one another seriously, to walk together and share without fear. This pre-Synodal meeting is meant to be a sign of something great: the Church’s willingness to listen to all young people, no one excluded, and this is not for politics, or to have an artificial “youth-filia”, but because we need to better understand what God and history is asking of us”.

In the Church, Francis said, “we must learn new ways of being present and close to one another. It comes to mind when Moses wanted to tell the people of God what the core of God’s love is, so he says: think, what people wanted a God so close to you. Love is closeness. And they, the young people, today ask the Church to be close to them: you Christians who believe in the closeness of Christ, you Catholics be close to one another, not far. And you know very well, that there are many ways to draw away. Everyone is very polite, and uses white gloves, to take distance so as not to get their hands dirty... The young people of today are asking us to be close to Catholics, Christians, believers and non-believers”. Francis, then cited the “splendid Message to the young people of Vatican II”, and insisted on stressing that “ still today, it is a stimulus to fight against all selfishness and to build with courage a better world. It is an invitation to seek new paths and to walk them with audacity and trust, keeping our gaze fixed on Jesus and opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit, to rejuvenate the very face of the Church. Because it is in Jesus and in the Spirit that the Church finds the strength to renew herself always, by reviewing her life on her way of being, asking forgiveness for her fragilities and inadequacies, to put herself at the service of all without holding back, with the sole intention of being faithful to the mission that the Lord has entrusted to her: to live and proclaim the Gospel”. All of you, the Pope told the kids, “can collaborate to this fruitfulness, may you be Catholic Christians, or of other religions or non-believers. We ask you to collaborate to fertility, to give life”.

“We need to find in the Lord the strength to recover from failure, to go forward, to strengthen our confidence in the future”, the Pope continued, “and we need to dare to take new paths, even if this involves risks. We must take risks, because love knows how to take risks; without taking risks, a young person grows old, and the Church also grows old. Therefore, we need you, young people, living stones of a Church with a young face, but not for the make-up: not artificially rejuvenated, but enlivened from within. A man or woman who does not risk - the Pope stressed - does not mature. An institution that makes choices so as not to risk, remains a child, does not grow up. Risk! With cautious advice, but go forward. Do you know what happens to a young person who doesn’t risk? They get old and retire at twenty years old. The young age and so does the Church. I say this with pain: how often I see Christian communities, even of young old people, that have grown old because they were afraid, afraid to go out, to go out into the existential suburbs of life, to go out there where the future is played out. One thing is prudence, which is a virtue, but another is fear”.

You, the Pope said, “provoke us to go beyond the logic of “this has always been done this way” in order to remain in a creative way in the wake of authentic Christian tradition, but creative. That logic is a poison, a sweet poison, it calms the soul, it leaves you a little anaesthetized and it doesn’t let you walk. I recommend that Christians read the book of the Acts of the Apostles: the creativity of those men, who knew how to move forward with a creativity that frightens us. You create a new culture, but be careful: this culture cannot be eradicated. One step ahead but keep your roots in mind... don’t go back to the roots because you’ll end up buried, but one step ahead always with your roots. And the roots are the elderly. Hence the importance of listening to the elderly” the Pope said reiterating what the prophet Joel said: “The old will dream and the young will prophesy.

“ A close dialogue is what we need to tune in with the younger generations”, the Pope concluded. “I therefore invite you, this week, to speak frankly and freely. Have the guts! You are the protagonists and it is important that you speak openly. “But I am ashamed, the cardinal will hear me”... Oh yes, he will hear you, he is accustomed to. I can assure you that your contribution will be taken seriously. Already now I say thank you; and I ask you, please, do not forget to pray for me. And those who cannot pray, at least think of me well”.