Listening to young people

«To the parents of children who are preparing for First Communion I ask: 'What are the values ​​of life in front of which the Holy Spirit puts a plus?'. They answer: “Peace, justice, truth, love…”.

So I get up and start to leave, then I go back: “It's strange; you gave me answers from angels, and you don't have wings! Aren't money, body, fun, sex a value? ". How many people are illiterate in love! ». Alberto Ablondi, friend and teacher of Sermig, summarized his idea of ​​Christianity in a conference in Assisi where we had invited him as a speaker, for him the man was always and in any case put in front of the structure. Born in Milan in 1924, in 1970 he became bishop of Livorno.

A man of communion, he begins a fruitful period of dialogue with representatives of the Jewish and Muslim communities, opening an interreligious path that will culminate in 1989 with the Day of Judaism every 17th January. His love for the Church - of which he hopes for a renewal following Vatican II rooted in the Sacred Scriptures leading to the first interfaith translation of the New Testament into the current language - unites his attention to civil society. In that same year, in fact, he authoritatively supports the struggle of workers against the privatization of ports. But above all in him there is a passionate love for young people, to whom he even dedicates a Synod.

«It is time to listen to the thirst and the night of the young. In my Diocese I tried to listen to them, to understand them, to love them and I developed this idea: young people are not poor. He is poor who does not have what everyone has; young people are miserable, because they do not have what they need to live. They write to me: “You alone are interested in us, you alone are a friend. Everyone talks about us, or about us, but nobody talks to us ”». After so many years - he died in 2010 - the urgency is always topical, and Sermig continues to be its spokesperson.

Annamaria Gobbato
NP January 2022