Building a "healthier" society, facing the "moral challenge" posed by
globalization, seeking to achieve a more united world through the
cultural enrichment that allows easier insertion into the world of work
and avoiding the "brain drain": These are the objectives that Pope
Francis has proposed to the 150 participants in the Fourth World
Congress of the Pastoral Care of International Students organized by the
Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant
People with the theme: "Pope Francis Evangelii Gaudium and moral challenges in the intellectual world of International students toward a healthier society "."Building a healthier society" is, the Pope said, "the goal to always keep in mind". "It is important that the younger generation go in this direction, they feel responsible for the reality they live in and the architects of the future ". "In our time, the moral challenges are many and it is not always easy to struggle for the affirmation of the truth and values, especially when you are young. But with God's help, and with the sincere will to do good, all obstacles can be overcome. "
" In the modern concept of the intellectual, working for the realization of self and in search of personal recognition, often without care for their neighbor, it is necessary to counter with a model built on solidarity, which works for the common good and for peace".
Only in the intellectual world it becomes capable of building a healthier society. Those who have the gift of being able to study also have a responsibility to serve for the good of humanity. Knowledge is an easy path to the integral development of society; and being students in a country other than your own, in another cultural horizon, allows you to learn new languages, new customs and traditions. It allows us to look at the world from another perspective and to open up without fear to others and differences. This leads students, and those who welcome them, to become more tolerant and hospitable. Increasing social skills, increasing confidence in themselves and in others, these horizons are expanding, their future vision widens and also wants to build the common good together. Schools and universities are the ideal location for the consolidation of consciences sensitive towards a more cohesive development and to advance "a commitment to evangelization in an interdisciplinary and integrated manner" (cf. ibid., N. Evangelii gaudium, 134). For this, I urge you teachers and pastoral workers to instill in young people a love of the gospel, the desire to live it concretely and to announce it to others. It is important that the period spent abroad become an opportunity for personal and intellectual growth for students and a starting point for them to return to their country of origin to make their contribution and, marked by the inner urge to carry with them the joy of the Good News. You need an education that teaches critical thinking and which offers a maturation process in values (cf. ibid., 64). In this way, forming young people who thirst for truth and not for power, ready to defend the values and to live mercy and charity, the main pillars for a healthier society”.
"That of the international students is not a new phenomenon, however, it has intensified because of the so-called globalization, which has brought down the space and time boundaries, encouraging encounter and exchange between cultures. But here too we see negative aspects, such as the emergence of certain closures, defense mechanisms before diversity, internal walls which do not allow a person to look their brother or sister in the eye and realize their real needs. Even among young people - and this is very sad – there is a creeping "globalization of indifference," which makes us "unable to feel compassion to others cry of pain" (ibid., 54). Thus, it follows that these negative effects are reflected on people and communities. Instead, dear friends, we bet that the way you live globalization can produce positive outcomes and enable great potential. For you students, spending time away from your country, in families and different contexts, you can develop a remarkable ability to adapt, learning to be guardians of others as brothers and creation as our common home, and this is crucial to making the world more human. Formation courses can accompany and guide you young students in this direction, and can do so with the current events freshness and audacity of the Gospel, to form new evangelizers ready to infect the world with the joy of Christ to the ends of the earth . Dear young people, John Paul II liked to call you "morning watchmen." I encourage you to be so every day, with an eye to Christ and history. So you are able to announce the salvation of Jesus and to carry his light in a world too often obscured by the darkness of indifference, selfishness and war. "