IMAGE:
By Carol Glatz
VATICAN
CITY (CNS) — When Pope Francis goes to Poland to meet with an expected 2 million
young people from around the world, he’s going with a firm idea of the dreams,
fears and challenges so many of them face.
He
knows what lies inside the hearts and minds of today’s youth, not because of any
third-party polling or sophisticated survey, but because Pope Francis practices
what he’s called an “apostolate of the ear.”
It
takes patience and grace, he told disadvantaged university students in Rome in
June, to truly listen to what others have to say — a call he repeated during
his Angelus address this month, warning that people’s hectic lives were threatening an already
hobbled ability to listen.
As
pope, a busy
ministry that could easily lead to isolation or overscheduling, he has worked
hard to make the time to listen to people of all backgrounds in public and
private settings. And he has often broken with papal protocol to get an
unfiltered look at what today’s youth think and feel.
He
will scrap pre-written speeches and ask his sometimes very young audiences what
questions they have. He also does interviews with young people, including those
who aren’t Catholic or even religious, like when he welcomed six young students
and reporters from Belgium in 2014.
When
they asked why he agreed to do the video interview with them, the pope said
because he sensed they had a feeling of “apprehension” or unease
about life and “I think it is my duty to serve young people,” to
listen to and help guide their anxiety, which is “like a seed that grows
and in time bears fruit.”
His
latest sit-down with a group of young people came in May when he met with YouTube
personalities from different parts of the world. The popular vloggers have a
huge following of millions of young people themselves, and so they know beyond
their own personal experiences what many kids today are thinking and feeling.
The
full 50-minute video of that closed-door Q&A was uploaded recently with
little fanfare by one of the 11 young people and posted on the YouTube channel,
Anna RF.
The
questions they ask and advice the pope gives offer a good indication of what
he’s been hearing these past years and what he may hope to convey when he meets
with participants at World Youth Day events.
Here’s
a brief look at their biggest concerns and how the pope responded:
—
Bullying, exclusion, intolerance: The pope said dial down aggression by showing
tenderness and humility.
“Aggression
is always a sign of insecurity,” so try to neutralize the attack by
showing good manners, listening, softly asking questions about what the person
is trying to say and letting them vent their anger.
“You
should never react to provocation. It’s better to look stupid than respond when
you are provoked,” he said.
Favor
encounters and dialogue that look for a sense of belonging that goes beyond
racial, religious, ethnic or group identities. “There is something far
greater” to which everyone belongs — the human family, he said.
—
Identity and belonging: The pope said people have to feel they belong to
something, and if their family or community is broken, then a virtual belonging
online can help. Supportive peers online can create a circle of friendship and
belonging, and from there “craft a path of hope” for those who feel
lost or alone.
—
Helping those who feel hopeless or lost: The best thing to do is not to speak,
but hold their hand, he said.
“We
have forgotten the language of gestures and actions” and have gotten too
used to words, which sometimes, especially when someone is in pain, “are
of no use.”
—
Immigration and integration: Newcomers need to be able to hold onto their own
culture, he said.
Europe
has such a negative experience of migration because they did not develop healthy
policies that fostered integration while allowing people to keep their own
culture without being judged or rejected, he said.
—
Fostering empathy, understanding among religions in the face of negative media
messaging: The relationship between people of different religious beliefs needs
to be based on brotherly love because “we all have the same father,”
he said.
People
have to listen to each other and look at the positive things each religion
proposes in order to build that positive relationship, he said. Solely
underlining what divides one religion from another amounts to “putting up
a wall” and attacking each other, he added.
“What
makes us attack, what divides us are fundamentalists,” he said, in which
individuals think they themselves hold the truth and everyone else is wrong. Starting
with the awareness “we are all brothers and sisters,” he said,
“leads to dialogue.”
—
Taking a stand on controversial topics, how to fight for what is right: The pope
said he is not always successful in quelling the anger his position or words
may cause “so if I fail, I always say it is my fault.”
He
said he looks at what went wrong — not to invent an excuse, but to see where
dialogue can be built.
“What
helps me is to listen,” he said. Sit down and hear what others have to say
and talk according to the art of persuasion, not aggressive debate, he said.
“Persuasion can be peaceful. This is my way.”
The
pope repeatedly shows through his gestures and words that “the root of
peace lies in our capacity to listen,” as he said at his Angelus address
July 17.
Listening
for the pope ends up being not just a method for gathering information for
helping people; the gesture of listening is itself an act of peace.
– – –
Follow Glatz on Twitter: @CarolGlatz.
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