Albeit in a different way from earlier generations, social commitment is a specific feature of today’s young people. Alongside some who are indifferent, there are many others who are ready to commit themselves to initiatives of voluntary work, active citizenship and social solidarity, and they need to be accompanied and encouraged, so as to bring out their talents, skills and creativity and to provide incentives for them to assume responsibility. Social commitment and direct contact with the poor remain a fundamental opportunity for discovery or deepening of faith and discernment of vocation. There is strong and widespread sensitivity to ecological themes and sustainability that the encyclical Laudato Si’ has galvanized. It has also been pointed out that the young are ready to engage in the field of politics so as to build the common good, something that the Church has not always been able to accompany by providing opportunities for formation and spaces for discernment. With regard to the promotion of justice, the young ask the Church to show decisive and consistent engagement, stamping out any complicity with a worldly mentality.
TheoFonsAt the sources of the faith