DIOCESAN CONVENTION
By Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service
ROME — Instead of “pretending to be adolescents,” parents must help young people see the blessing of growing into adulthood, Pope Francis told priests, religious, catechists and parish council members from the Diocese of Rome.
The belief that youthfulness is a model of success “is one of the most dangerous ‘unwitting’ menaces in the education of our adolescents” that hinders their personal growth because “adults have taken their place,” the pope said June 19, opening the Rome Diocese’s annual convention.
This “can increase a natural tendency young people have to isolate themselves or to curb their process of growth” because they have no role models, the pope said.
In his nearly 45-minute talk, Pope Francis reflected on the convention’s theme, “Do not leave them alone! Accompanying parents in educating adolescent children.”
The pope said the first step in reaching out to young people in Rome is to “speak in the Roman dialect, that is, concretely” rather than in general or abstract terms that do not speak to teens’ problems.
Families in big cities such as Rome face different problems than those in rural areas. For this reason, the pope said, parents must educate their adolescent children “within the context of a big city” and speak to them concretely with “healthy and stimulating realism.”