VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As young people across the globe feel increasingly adrift and overlooked, Catholic religious orders and agencies must redouble their efforts to help young people stay in school, learn a trade and find a decent job, Pope Francis said.
"Those who feel discarded can end up in forms of social disadvantage that are humanly degrading, and we must not accept this," the pope told members of an Italian Catholic federation of groups that help prepare young people for the job market.
"Good vocational training enables one to do a job and, at the same time, to discover the meaning of the one's being in the world and in society," Pope Francis said May 3 as he met thousands of federation members and the young adults they have assisted – including young chefs who brought a fruit tart he sampled then and there.
Young people are one of the most "fragile" categories of people today, he said. "Full of talents and potential, they also are particularly vulnerable" in today's culture, especially if they are migrants or have not had the gift of a strong family and a strong faith community to give them support and guidance.
Too many young Italians move from their hometowns in search of work, the pope said, but they find nothing, are offered only temporary or low-paid work, or are so disappointed with a job that they quit.
"Faced with these and other similar situations, we must all become aware of one thing: the abandonment of education and training is a tragedy," he said. "Hear me well, it is a tragedy."
The government must do something to help, the pope said, but there also is much that businesses and concerned citizens can do.
A place to start, he said, is to "construct a generational change where the skills of those who are leaving the labor market are at the service of those who are entering. In other words, having adults share the dreams and desires of the young, by introducing them, supporting them and encouraging them without judging them."
Training and education today obviously must grapple with new technology and the development of artificial intelligence, the pope said. "Here we are called upon to repel two temptations: on the one hand, technophobia, or rather the fear of technology that leads to dismissing it, on the other, technocracy, the illusion that technology can solve all problems."
Instead, the pope told the groups, an investment of resources and energy is necessary because "the transformation of work demands ongoing, creative and constantly updated training."
And, he said, "efforts must also be made to restore dignity to certain jobs, especially manual ones, which are still socially under-recognized."
Training and assistance with finding a job is not simply socially useful, Pope Francis said. It is a service to the person involved and a recognition of his or her God-given dignity.
"Our profession defines us," he said. After all, asking a person what he or she does for a living or where he or she works is a normal part of getting to know someone.
Even Jesus was known as "the carpenter's son," the pope noted.
"And yet, today we are witnessing a debasement of the meaning of work, which is increasingly interpreted in relation to earning money rather than as an expression of one's dignity and contribution to the common good," he said, which is why training programs must pay attention to the whole person and his or her spiritual, cultural and professional development.
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