(ANS – Aparecida) – As part of the Continental Meeting of Salesian Works and Social Services of America (9-13 September 2024), the General Councillor for Youth Ministry, Fr Miguel Angel García Morcuende, held a conference on the reality of youth in the world, entitled: “The universe of young people: a photographic report.” A long question-and-answer session followed with the 120 participants in the meeting.

The study of young people – like that of other age groups, such as childhood or old age – presupposes a good knowledge of the contexts. Therefore Fr García Morcuende began with a diagnosis of the world situation, based on the “Global Risks Report” by the World Economic Forum and on the recent studies of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, thus illustrating the global risks that have a significant impact on the economy, natural resources and young people.

“Thinking about the complexity of the youth question, as well as interpreting the causes and the material, social, and cultural contradictions that underlie it, appears today as the real challenge to which civil society, politics, institutions, and the Church are called,” said Fr García Morcuende. He then developed the impact of the world situation on young people in 12 concrete areas:

• The lack of funding and public policies for young people
• Some demographic indicators and the dynamics of migratory flows
• Access to free and quality education
• Illegal occupation and possession of territory, stigmatization of the territory, and social isolation
• Employment and quality of work for young people (precariousness and low income)
• The participation of young people in the institutions and civil, social, and political life of the countries
• Mental health and gang violence
• Structural transformations of the family
• The construction of identity
• Digitalization and technology
• Gender equality and domestic and couple violence
• The process of urbanization in countries

Later, he offered the Salesian Provinces some concrete proposals on which to work. Among other concrete interpretations that allow us to develop projects and build utopias, he developed the following topics: 

• Facing social realities with a deep vision and a creative imagination;
• Being a poor Church, resolutely committed to the weakest and poorest; 
• Promoting a pastoral charity illuminated by truth and at the service of integral development; 
• Working for justice and transforming the structures that generate poverty; 
• Committing to taking care of our Common Home; 
• Cultivating a solid spirituality and deepening the evangelizing dimension of charity; 
• Strengthening community animation and the care of its key players; 
• And, finally, encouraging hope and generative processes.

In short, “the Salesians must have a goldsmith’s eye and a sentinel’s eye. A goldsmith’s eye to appreciate, love, and give color to the smallest details of every day. A sentinel’s eye so as not to lose sight of the horizon towards which we are moving: the kingdom of God already present, whose fullness we await.”