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Editorial Faith that is Believable We are about to conclude an event-filled year with its combination of hope and responsibility and dedication to the common preoccupation on a global level. And a good". “year of faith” has just begun, one that Benedict XVI hopes will arouse “in every The article Encounters highlights this in the believer the aspiration to profess the faith in life of Maria Domenica Mazzarello who “felt fullness and with renewed conviction”. in herself a strong desire to do good for girls, and an inner voice telling her to gather DMA offers some reflections on the urgency them, to instruct them in religion, teaching of giving depth and credibility to the faith them to flee from sin, and to practice virtue.” today. "Even we, consecrated women, It is important to rediscover in the Founders sometimes run the risk of remaining on the and re-activate today the total and exclusive margins, becoming accomplices in that belonging to the God of love, the faith in His attitude separating faith from life and real presence and closeness to us that makes problems," we read in one of the entries. us attentive and active in our gestures of The new evangelization calls for a journey love toward others. of faith that restores enthusiasm to the relationship with the Lord Jesus, the center From a survey among young people we see of a believer’s experience, the all- that what attracts and convinces them is the encompassing reference point in climate of the family spirit, friendliness, consecrated life. It is a relationship that listening, and relationship with educators inevitably opens us to others, and to the who teach them to pray. It is an educative service of young people. A environment where, through real models, concrete commitment to the cause of one favors a way of being alternative to person is required of us, because "a faith today’s dominant logic, that of the Gospel that does not make history is an empty faith, where one lives forgiveness, solidarity, it is a falsification of the inexhaustible gift of responsibility, and a sense of mystery. God who wants to meet the human person to free him/her, and to rebuild a new life, in ordinary situations ". Our tradition and the witness of many Sisters of yesterday and today are proof We are called to be "in the world without that credible faith is embodied in life: it is an being of the world", to enter into the heart of entrustment of charismatic hope for the problems and changes in society. The tomorrow Council indicates this to us in Gaudium et Spes when it urges Christians to "be aware of their vocation within the political community," and to "set an example by [email protected] developing in themselves a sense of DOSSIER Responsible for the City of Mankind Mara Borsi – Palma Lionetti Young People and Politics...it is not a film! There are many clichés we educators use to already been done, to regain and re-start describe the world of youth; it is a world for jammed mechanisms, but it is a time to which we are responsible. Young people, invent. This is the great challenge that like adults, do not care about politics, but young people are asked to deal with today: prefer to deal with other topics from reality to invent. As believers it is time to be open television, sports, and entertainment. They with availability to the source of truth that are always a bit “on the edge”, fixed before the Gospel still presents to all today. a reality that flows like a movie. But until we give back to young people the We, too, as consecrated women risk possibility to express what is bothering remaining on the margins of the them, politics cannot regain its order, conversation becoming accomplices in that nature, function, and capacity to enter into a attitude which separates faith from life and dimension of service to the person, to real problems with the excuse that the contemporary men and women. politics practiced by Don Bosco were those of the Our Father. The Question Politics seems to be characterized only by What are the tasks, then of a youth ministry corruption, individual interests, and the like ours committed to life and hope? We pursuit of personal gain. deal with broadening our pastoral vision on the theme, i.e., promoting an educational The killer word is “disenchantment”. It is a interpretation that attempts to propose a term that is killing expressions on how to different approach, planning and acting in share, renew, and upgrade…This that space of action that is formation. widespread and persistent sentiment if likely to make us believe that it is virtually On the global level we are immersed in a impossible to get out of the crisis by seeking triple crisis: the economic crisis, the common and shared solutions. environmental crisis determined by over- consumption on the part of the present The individual routes, fluid or changing generation, and the crisis of the solutions, and existential floating prevail, constitutional dimension of politics. These and make us slide into the habitual. have only one common denominator: the absence of a future. That which we live is not a time for re-doing, re-making, returning to do things that have A common root, which in turn has an anthropological aspect, is the individualism, i.e., the absence, of a common purpose in society. Therefore, it becomes ever more itself to individualism and indifference. It is a great force from the motivational point of view that understands gratuitousness as a value, a relational good as a possibility of becoming an economic undertaking, of expressing the capacity to build true social ties. How is it that this social richness does not always succeed in renewing politics? At times it seems relegated to a rhetorical exhortation, or at most to good witness. We need to understand, therefore, through a serious formation to responsibility and urgent to accompany a real citizenship, one experience how the question of ethics and that is planned, courageous, shared, and the meaning that the Gospel inspires it and aware. nourishes can become the energy capable of change, of political renewal, beginning Gratuitousness and Responsible from the language and actual behavior in Freedom…Words that make up Politics. life. “We commit ourselves, we and no one else, Are gratuitousness and responsible freedom without pretense, to find a meaning to life. still words that are useful in politics? If We are not interested in making a career for “responsibility’ is produced when we take on ourselves, or in financial gain. We are the fact of wanting or not wanting the young at heart and fear mere cold consequences of our actions, similarly, documents and cold marble. We do not care “freedom” is produced when we take on the either be heroes or traitors be before men if fact of wanting or not wanting the same it costs us the fidelity to ourselves.” These consequences. This means that are the words that Fr. Primo Mazzolari, an responsibility and freedom both intervene in Italian priest considered to be the precursor our educational and pastoral actions, of Vatican II and prophetic voice that still especially if we become aware that the speaks to today, and were aimed at young world in which we live depends on our people in his writings of 1943: "Commitment desires. And if education does not push the to Christ." They call for a political young people toward responsibility and commitment that will not put in parenthesis freedom of being co-creators of the world in the value-motivation, which begins from the which we live, limiting their reflection, it passion, from the ideals of justice, peace, counts for very little. non-violence, and authentic fraternity. These are words that apply to every context So it was that Teresa Californi describes her and every continent. experience in this regard: “Thinking of responsibility frightened me because it Taking a leap to our present time, we find in meant taking on certain duties…moral, the different youth contexts, communities, Christian, family…All are commitments to social groups, families that commit be lived with enthusiasm and satisfaction, themselves to experience characterized by because only in this way can one give the solidarity that constitute that great, lively correct meaning to self, others and the life world of volunteering. It is an expression of that surrounds us. This is how people are that part of civil society that does not resign taught responsibility from the time they are More than ever does today’s situation indicate the Pastoral Constitution of Gaudium et Spes from Vatican Council II. All Christians must be aware of their own specific vocation within the political community. It is for them to give an example by their sense of responsibility and their service to the common good. In this way they are to demonstrate concretely how authority can be compatible with freedom, personal initiative and solidarity of the whole social organism , and the advantages of unity with fruitful diversity. Responsibility-Our Shared Journey How are we to restore to the word responsibility the positive meaning that encourages and sweeps away the uneasiness that arises? Perhaps this happens because it seems to come from a certain sense of guilt, of misfortune, from the feeling of having to pay with a loss of freedom, and suffering. small, in ordinary actions, to grow in a civic, Christian and moral sense. “Responsibility is the correct response generated by the recognition of a value. If I think of the word “responsibility”, in my Every authentic value is a gift from which mind there is an automatic negative springs that responsibility that is not a association, because culturally I live in a particular capacity since it is the expression socio-political reality in which …”it is better of freedom and uniqueness of the person.

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