Bolivia - Archbishop Tito Solari: "how to educate young people in a world of anti-values"

(ANS - Santa Cruz) - The Catholic Church in Bolivia recently celebrated the third national meeting of Catholic students, with over 1,000 young people from all over the country. They spent three days studying their Catholic identity and trying to awaken the desire of mercy and service to the needy. The presence of Archbishop Tito Solari, SDB, Archbishop Emeritus of Cochabamba, was very important. He made reference to the context of relativism of values ​​that young people in Bolivia live in, and showed how to educate young people to live their faith and to practise mercy in their daily life.

How do you see young people at this time?

There are many young people who come from families who educate with love and charity, and devote time to teaching them to live according to the example of Christ. Of course there are young people today who live with a lot of superficiality, who are caught by the phone, the media, fashion, and modern culture that distracts them and makes them superficial.  This takes away the ability to be what they could be as young people.  And unfortunately there are young people who are already trapped by evil. They are everywhere, young people who are trapped by vice, drugs, sex, and evil.

Is it possible to work with young people?

It's beautiful to work with young people! You can see their ability to nurture the seed that God has given them, a seed that their mother gave them and the school has given them. Young people learn, but we must be positive with them, so that they can grow and be able to overcome the negative wave that often surrounds them.

What should Bolivian education give young people for them to find their way?

We don’t have to give young people anything, we should be asking from them. The way to help a young person to grow is not by giving and giving. True education is to ask, ask, ask with love, stimulate the love they have inside, and their desire to excel. The fact is that society today gives too much to the young people, gives them cheap stuff, makes them negative, makes them weak and makes them lose their horizon. Young people are being lost. We have to do a lot for them, but above all, we have to be with them.

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