Undersecretary Gambino: “Educators must have the courage to tell the truth”

“We need educators who have the courage of the truth and know how to accompany young people in their personal and vocational discernment. Another fundamental aspect is the need to make young people discover the reasonableness of faith and its beauty. The discourse about truth is closely linked to that about beauty.”

The undersecretary Gabriella Gambino said this a few days ago during the seminar on the theme “Announcing the Glory of the Cross to the Young: A Gospel Still Possible?” promoted by the Gloria Crucis chair of the Pontifical Lateran University.

“Youth ministry—she continued—cannot be adequately developed if it is not brought to converge with family ministry, that is to say in a transversal perspective. First of all, young people are subjects of the relations within their families, who still have the primary responsible for their education and formation.”

Finally, the undersecretary stressed that “the Church must understand that She is the ‘generative womb” of new generations, like a Mother dedicated to a missionary vocation that consists not only in sowing Christ’s presence but also in caring, with patience and dedication, for the children who open themselves to the faith. This means fully assuming one’s responsibilities with a commitment capable of developing long-term pastoral projects, which at the local level—she concluded—, can accompany children on a gradual path through the different stages of childhood and youth until they become adults.”