Dialogue with Young People in the Park of the Princes (1 June 1980)

On Sunday, 1 June 1980, the Holy Father engaged in dialogue with young people gathered in the Park of the Princes, Paris. The Pope explained the nature and value of dialogue and then answered questions put to him by the young people.

Dear young people of France,

1. Thank you for this meeting which you wanted to organize as a kind of dialogue. You wanted to speak with the Pope. And this is very important for two reasons.

The first reason is that this way of doing things refers us directly to Christ: in him a dialogue is continually taking place: the conversation of God with man and of man with God.

Christ - you have heard - is the Word, the Word of God. He is the eternal Word. This Word of God, like Man, is not the word of a “great monologue”, but it is the Word of the “incessant dialogue” which unfolds in the Holy Spirit. I know this sentence is difficult to understand, but I say it anyway, and I leave it for you to ponder.

Didn't we celebrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity this morning?

The second reason is this: dialogue responds to my personal conviction that being the servant of the Word, of the Word, means “announcing” in the sense of “responding”. To answer, you have to know the questions. That is why it is good that you asked them; otherwise, I would have had to guess them in order to be able to speak to you, to answer you! (this is your question number twenty-one).

I arrived at this conviction, not only because of my previous experience as a teacher, through courses or work groups, but above all through my experience as a preacher; by giving the homily, and above all by preaching retreats. And most of the time, I was talking to young people; they are young people whom I was helping to encounter the Lord, to listen to him, and also to respond to him.

2. In addressing you now, I would like to do so in such a way that I can answer, at least indirectly, all of your questions.

That's why I can't do it by taking them one after the other; Inevitably, my answers could then only be schematic!

So allow me to choose the question that seems to me the most important, the most central, and start from that. In this way, I hope your other questions will appear little by little.

Your central question concerns Jesus Christ. You want to hear me talk about Jesus Christ, and you ask me who it is. for me, Jesus Christ (this is your thirteenth question).

Allow me to return the question to you as well and to say: for you, who is Jesus Christ? In this way, and without dodging the question, I will also give you my answer by telling you what He is for me.

3. The whole Gospel is dialogue with man, with different generations, with nations, with different traditions... but it is always and continually a dialogue with man, with each man, one, unique, absolutely unique.

At the same time, there are many dialogues in the Gospel. Among these, I retain as particularly eloquent the dialogue of Christ with the young man.

I will read the text to you, because you may not all remember it very well. It is in the nineteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.

“Behold, a man approached Jesus and said to him: "Master, what good thing must I do to obtain eternal life?". He said to him: "Why do you ask me about what is good? No one is good but God alone. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments". "Which ones?" he asked. Jesus replied: "You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself". "All this, said the young man to him, I have observed since my youth; what is not still missing?". Jesus said to him: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, and follow me". Hearing this word,

Why does Christ dialogue with this young man? The answer is found in the Gospel account. And you, you ask me why, wherever I go, I want to meet young people (it's even your first question).

And I answer you: because “the young” indicates the man who , in a particular way, in a decisive way, is in the process of “forming himself” . This does not mean that man does not form throughout his life: it is said that “education begins already before birth” and lasts until the last day. However, youth, from the point of view of formation, is a particularly important, rich and decisive period. And if you reflect on Christ's dialogue with the young man, you will find confirmation of what I have just said.

The questions of the young man are essential . The answers are too.

4. These questions and these answers are not only essential for the young man in question, important for his situation at the time; they are also of primary importance and essential for today. That is why, to the question of whether the Gospel can respond to the problems of men today (this is your ninth question), I answer: not only "he is capable of it", but we must go much further: he alone gives a total answer; which goes right to the bottom of things 'and completely.

I said at the beginning that Christ is the Word, the Word of an incessant dialogue. It is dialogue , dialogue with every man, although some do not do it, although not everyone knows how to conduct it – and there are also some who explicitly refuse this dialogue. They walk away... And yet... maybe this dialogue is going on with them too. I am convinced that this is so.

More than once this dialogue “unfolds” in an unexpected and surprising way.

5. I also retain your question to know why, in the various countries where I go, and also in Rome, I speak with the various Heads of State (question number two).

Simply because Christ speaks with all men, with every man. Besides, I think, do not doubt it, that he has no fewer things to say to men who have such great social responsibilities than to the young man in the Gospel, and that to each of between you.
To your question of knowing what I am talking about when I talk to heads of state, I will answer that I speak to them, very often, precisely about young people. Indeed, it is on youth that “the day of tomorrow” depends. These last words are taken from a song that young Polish people your age often sing: “The day of tomorrow depends on us”. I too have sung it more than once with them. Besides, I generally took great pleasure in singing songs with young people, for the music and for the lyrics. I evoke this memory because you also asked me questions about my homeland (this is your seventh question), but to answer this question, I would have to speak at great length!

And you also ask what France could learn from Poland, and what Poland could learn from France.

We usually remember that Poland learned more from France than France from Poland. Historically, Poland is several centuries younger. However, I think that France could also learn various things. Poland has not had an easy history, especially over the past few centuries. The Poles “paid”, and not only a little, to be Poles, and also to be Christians... This answer is “autobiographical”, you will excuse me, but you are the one who provoked it. Allow me, however, to expand on this autobiographical answer with a few other questions you posed.

For example when you ask if the Church, which is “Western” can really be the “African” or “Asian” Church (twentieth question).

6.Obviously, this question is broader and goes further than the one I spoke about earlier about the Church in France or in Poland. Indeed, both are “Western”, belonging to the domain of the same European and Latin culture, but my answer will be the same. By its nature, the Church is one and universal. It becomes the Church of every nation, or of continents, or of races, as these societies accept the Gospel and make it, so to speak, their property. Not long ago I went to Africa. Everything indicates that the young Churches of this continent are well aware of being African. And they consciously aspire to make the connection between Christianity and the traditions of their cultures. In Asia, and especially in the Far East,

7. Let us now return to our main subject, to the dialogue of Christ with the young man .

In fact, I would gladly say that we stayed in its context all the time.

So the young man asks, “Master, what good must I do to obtain eternal life?”
[ 1 ].

But you ask the question: Can we be happy in today's world? (this is your twelfth question).

In truth, you are asking the same question as this youngster! Christ answers - to him and also to you, to each one of you -: we can . This is indeed what he replies, even if his words are these : “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments”[ 2 ]. And he will answer even later: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, give it to the poor and follow me”[ 3 ].

These words mean that man can only be happy insofar as he is capable of accepting the demands placed on him by his own humanity, his dignity as a man. God's demands on him.

8. So then, Christ not only answers the question whether one can be happy - but he says more: how one can be happy, on what condition . This answer is completely original, and it cannot be outdated, it can never be stale. You have to think about it well, and adapt it to yourselves. Christ's answer has two parts . The first is to keep the commandments. Here I will digress because of one of your questions about the principles that the Church teaches in the area of ​​sexual morality (it is the seventeenth).

You express your concern that they are difficult, and that young people might, precisely for this reason, turn away from the Church. I will answer you as follows: if you think about this question in a profound way, and if you go to the bottom of the problem, I assure you that you will realize one thing only: in this area, the Church only asks requirements that are closely linked to true, that is to say responsible, marital and conjugal love.

It demands what the dignity of the person and the fundamental social order require. I do not deny that these are requirements. But it is precisely in this that the essential point of the problem lies: namely, that man realizes himself only insofar as he knows how to impose demands on himself. Otherwise, he goes “all sad”, as we have just read in the Gospel. Moral permissiveness does not make men happy. The consumer society does not make men happy. They never did.

9. In Christ's dialogue with the young, there are, as I said, two stages. In the first stage, it is about the commandments of the Decalogue, that is to say the fundamental requirements of all human morality. In the second stage, Christ says: “If you want to be perfect... come and follow me”[ 4 ].

This "come follow me" is a central and culminating point of this episode. These words indicate that one cannot learn Christianity as a lesson made up of many and various chapters, but that it must always be linked with a Person , with a living person: with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the guide: he is the model. It can be imitated in various ways and to various extents. One can in various ways and to various extents make Him the "Rule" of one's own life.

Each of us is like a particular “material” from which we can - by following Christ - draw this concrete, unique and absolutely singular form of life which we can call the Christian vocation. On this point, much was said at the last Council, with regard to the vocation of the laity.

10. This does not alter the fact that this “follow me” of Christ, in the specific case, is and remains the priestly vocation or the vocation to the consecrated life according to the evangelical counsels . I say this because you asked the question (the tenth) about my own priestly vocation. I will try to answer you briefly, following the thread of your question.

I will therefore say first of all: I have been Pope for two years; I have been a bishop for more than twenty years, and yet the most important thing for me is always the fact of being a priest . Being able to celebrate the Eucharist every day . To be able to renew Christ's own sacrifice, by returning all things in him to the Father: the world, humanity, and myself. It is in this, in fact, that a right dimension of the Eucharist consists. And that is why I have always vivid in my memory that interior development as a result of which “I heard” Christ's call to the priesthood. This particular “come, follow me”.

In entrusting this to you, I invite you to listen carefully , each and every one of you, to these Gospel words . It is through this that your humanity will be formed to its core, and that the Christian vocation of each of you will be defined. And perhaps in your turn you will also hear the call to the priesthood or to religious life. France, until recently, was rich in these vocations. She has given the Church, among other things, so many missionaries and so many missionary nuns! Certainly, Christ continues to speak on the banks of the Seine, and He always addresses the same call. Listen carefully. There must always be in the Church those who “have been chosen from among men”[ 5], those whom Christ establishes, in a special way, “for the good of men” and whom he sends to men.

11. You also asked the question about prayer (the fourth). There are several definitions of prayer. But it is most often called a colloquy, a conversation, an interview with God. When conversing with someone, we are not only talking, but also listening. Prayer is therefore also listening . It consists in listening to the inner voice of grace. Listening to the call. And so, as you ask me how the Pope prays, I answer you: like any Christian: he speaks and he listens. Sometimes he prays without words, and then he listens all the more. What is most important is precisely what he “hears”. And he also seeks to unite prayer with his obligations, with his activities, with his work, and to unite his work with prayer.. And in this way, day after day, he seeks to carry out his “service”, his “ministry”, which comes to him from the will of Christ and from the living tradition of the Church.

12. You also ask me how I see this service now that I have been called for two years to be Successor of Peter (question number six). I see it above all as a maturation in the priesthood and as the permanence in prayer , with Mary, the Mother of Christ, of the way in which the Apostles were assiduous in prayer, in the Cenacle of Jerusalem, when they received the Holy Spirit.

In addition to that, you will find my answer to this question from the following questions. And above all that concerning the realization of the Second Vatican Council (question fourteen). You ask if it is possible? And I answer you: not only is the realization of the Council possible, but it is necessary. And this response is above all the response of faith. This is the first answer I gave, the day after my election, before the cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel.

This is the answer that I gave to myself and to others, first as bishop and as cardinal, and it is the answer that I give continually. This is the main problem . I believe that through the Council have been realized for the Church in our time the words of Christ by which he promised his Church the Spirit of truth , who will guide the minds and hearts of the Apostles and their successors, by allowing them to remain in the truth and to guide the Church in the truth, by realizing in the light of this truth “the signs of the times”.

This is precisely what the Council has done according to the needs of our time, of our era. I believe that, thanks to the Council, the Holy Spirit “speaks” to the Church. I say this by taking up the expression of Saint John. Our duty is to understand firmly and honestly what “the Spirit says”, and to carry it out, avoiding deviations from the path that the Council has traced from so many points of view.

13. The service of the bishop, and in particular that of the Pope, is linked to a particular responsibility for what the Spirit says: it is linked for the whole of the faith of the Church and of Christian morality. Indeed, it is this faith and this morality that they must teach in the Church, the bishops with the Pope, watching in the light of the still living tradition on their conformity with the revealed word of God. And this is why they must sometimes also note that certain opinions or certain publications show that they lack this conformity. They do not constitute authentic doctrine Christian faith and morals. I bring this up because you asked (question number five). If we had more time, we could devote a more developed presentation to this problem - especially since, in this area, there is no shortage of false information and erroneous explanations, but we must content ourselves today with these few words.

14. I believe that the work of Christian unity is one of the greatest and finest tasks of the Church in our time.

You would like to know if I am waiting for this unity and how I imagine it? I will answer you the same thing as about the implementation of the Council. Here too, I see a special call from the Holy Spirit. As regards its realization, the various stages of this realization , we find in the teaching of the Council all the fundamental elements. They are the ones that we must implement, seek their concrete applications, and above all pray always with fervor, with constancy, with humility. The union of Christians cannot be achieved otherwise than by a deep maturation in the truth, and a conversionconstant of hearts. All this we must do to the extent of our human capacities, taking up all the “historical processes” that have lasted for centuries. But ultimately, this union, for which we must spare neither our efforts nor our labours, will be Christ's gift to his Church. Just as it is already one of his gifts that we have entered the path of unity.

15. Continuing the list of your questions, I answer you: I have already spoken very often of the duties of the Church in the field of justice and peace (fifteenth question), thus taking over from the activity of my great predecessors John XXIII and Paul VI. Tomorrow in particular, I intend to speak at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

I refer to all this because you ask: what can we do for this cause, we young people ? Can we do anything to prevent a new war, a catastrophe which would be incomparable, more terrible than the previous one? I think that, in the very wording of your questions, you will find the expected answer. Read these questions. Meditate on it. Make it a community program, a life program.

You young people already have the opportunity to promote peace and justice where you are, in your world. This already includes specific attitudes of benevolence in judgment, truth about yourselves and others, a desire for justice based on respect for others, their differences, their important rights; thus prepares for tomorrow a climate of fraternity when you will have greater responsibilities in society. If we want to create a new and fraternal world, we must prepare new people.

16. And now the Third World question (number eight). This is a great historical, cultural, civilizational question. But it is above all a moral problem. You rightly ask what should be the relations between our country and the countries of the Third World: of Africa and Asia. There are, indeed, great obligations of a moral nature . Our “western” world is at the same time “northern” (European or Atlantic). Its wealth and its progress owe much to the resources and men of these continents.

In the new situation in which we find ourselves after the Council, he cannot seek there only the sources of further enrichment and of his own progress. It must consciously , and by organizing itself for this, serve their development. This is perhaps the most important issue regarding justice and peace in the world today and tomorrow. The solution to this problem depends on the current generation, and it will depend on your generation and those that follow. Here too, it is a question of continuing the witness given to Christ and to the Church by several previous generations of religious and lay missionaries.

17. The question: how can we be witnesses of Christ today? (number eighteen). This is the fundamental question, the continuation of the meditation that we placed at the center of our dialogue, the interview with a young person. Christ says: “Follow me”. This is what he said to Simon, the son of Jonas, to whom he gave the name of Peter; to his brother André; to the children of Zebedee; to Nathanael. He says “follow me”, to then repeat, after the resurrection, “you will be my witnesses”[ 6 ].

To be a witness of Christ, to bear witness to him, one must first follow him. We must learn to know him, we must place ourselves, so to speak, in his school, penetrate all mysteries. It is a fundamental and central task. If we do not do this, if we are not willing to do this consistently and honestly, our testimony is likely to become superficial and external. It risks no longer being a testimony. If, on the contrary, we remain attentive to this, Christ himself will teach us, through his Spirit, what we have to do, how to behave, in what and how to commit ourselves, how to conduct dialogue with the contemporary world, this dialogue what Paul VI called the dialogue of salvation.

18. If you therefore ask me: “What should we do in the Church, especially we young people?”, I will answer you: get to know Christ. Constantly . Learn about Christ . In Him are truly the unsearchable treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In Him man, on whom his limits, his vices, his weakness and his sin weigh, truly becomes "the new man": he becomes man "for others", he also becomes the glory of God, because that the glory of God, as Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, bishop and martyr, said in the second century, is “the living man”.

The experience of two millennia teaches us that in this fundamental work, the mission of all the people of God, there is no essential difference between man and woman . Each in his gender, according to the specific characteristics of femininity and masculinity becomes this “new man”, that is to say this man “for others”, and as a living man he becomes the glory of God. If this is true, just as it is true that the Church, in the hierarchical sense, is led by the successors of the Apostles and therefore by men, it is certainly all the more true that, in the charismatic sense, women lead” just as much, and perhaps even more: I invite you to think often of Mary, the Mother of Christ.

19. Before concluding this testimony based on your questions, I would like to thank very especially the many representatives of French youth who, before my arrival in Paris, sent me thousands of letters . I thank you for having manifested this bond, this communion, this co-responsibility. I hope that this bond, this communion and this co-responsibility will continue, deepen and develop after our meeting this evening.

I also ask you to strengthen your union with the young people of the whole Church and of the world, in the spirit of this certainty that Christ is our way, the Truth and the Life[ 7 ] .

Let us unite now in this prayer that He Himself taught us, singing the “Our Father”, and receive all for yourselves, for the boys and girls of your age, for your families and for the men who suffer the most. , the blessing of the Bishop of Rome, successor of Saint Peter.

Our Father who art in heaven, / hallowed be your name, / your kingdom come, / your will be done / on earth as it is in heaven. / Give us today / our daily bread. / Forgive us our trespasses, / as we also forgive / those who trespass against us. / And lead us not into temptation, / but deliver us from evil. / Amen.

 [ 1 ] Matt . 19, 16.

 [ 2 ] Ibid . 19, 17.

 [ 3 ] Ibid . 19, 21.

 [ 4 ] Ibid . 19, 21.

 [ 5 ] Hebr . 5, 1.

 [ 6 ] Act . 1, 8.

 [ 7 ] Cfr. Io . 14, 6.

© Copyright 1980 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

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