To the Young people of Douala and of all Cameroon

On Tuesday, 13 August 1985, the Holy Father addressed the young people of Douala and all of Cameroon, speaking of the importance of Catholic education.

Dear friends,
Young people of Douala and all of Cameroon.

1. During the Mass, we talked a lot about Catholic education. We hope that all of you will benefit from it. We remembered all those who can help you realize your life project, your vocation. And first of all your parents, to whom you owe your life; they also gave you their attention, which allowed you, like Tobia, to realize this life, and an education that will mark you forever, because it is inscribed in paternal affection, in maternal tenderness. We appealed to those responsible for the school, to your teachers, to the parishes, to the movements, to all those who can give you guidance, help, friendship, a life experience.

2. But it is up to you, as you grow, to take charge of your education; to draw on your family and cultural heritage, your catechetical formation, your studies, by frequenting your older friends and your peers, the convictions that allow you to lead a life as young people, men and women worthy of God's plan for each of you.

Because each one has a place in God's thought, in God's family. No one is excluded, even if, alas, they do not yet find a place in the world of work. Those who are Christians know that Jesus looks at them with love, like a certain young man in the Gospel. He is counting on your response. He invites us first of all to be faithful to the commandments written in your conscience: honest, frank and courageous, pure, respectful of others, of your parents, of the elderly, of young men and women like you. He warns you against the snares of those who promise you a future without pain, enjoyment without responsibility, success without effort, profit without sharing. To prefer escape into selfishness, passivity, sometimes even into debauchery, banditry, drugs and violence, you see clearly that it is a disgrace, that it is unworthy of man!

3. But Christ - and the Church with him - knows well that you are generous. You want your life to serve something, someone. He considers you capable of truly loving. Open your eyes to those who are perhaps less fortunate than you. Show solidarity. Develop your intelligence and, at the same time, expand your heart. Christ urges you to make your life a gift that is a support for others, that comforts them and makes them happy. Some identify this gift in the Church to serve as priests, as deacons, as catechists; and, dear friends, you know how great and urgent the spiritual harvest is. Others see it as a commitment in the family, in society. Society in fact needs you, so that this city of Douala, so that your cities and villages, so that the whole of Cameroon may experience greater shared prosperity, greater justice, greater fraternity.

4. Yes, a great construction site has opened before you. Reach out to your friends and do your part. A great construction site has opened before the young people of the whole world. The International Year of Youth wants to be the starting point for this awareness. Young people often feel weak and needy; sometimes they doubt themselves, adults, even God. Most of them aspire to peace. “Peace and young people walk together” as I said in my New Year's message. They want brotherhood beyond races and borders. They want us to mobilize to defeat hunger. They want a world that respects man, his freedom, his conscience. They want a world of truth, without hypocrisy.

This world, dear friends, do you want it, do you want it too? In that case, you must pay the price: that of generous, rigorous, methodical efforts to arrive at the truth, to build the civilization of love, starting from the environment in which you live. The renewal of the world also passes through struggle. Not a struggle against man, but a struggle against the evil present in us and in the world. This requires sacrifice.

5. Christians who have followed Jesus know this well. On the path there is the cross and, with the cross, conversion, forgiveness. But also the resurrection. Jesus has opened the way to a new life, to brotherhood: it will never be obstructed. He has opened the doors of the world of the children of God: they will never be closed.

I tell you, friends, do not fear that world! Trust in Christ, the friend of your youth, remain his relatives in prayer. Yes, find time to pray, to meditate on the Bible together, to participate in the Sunday Eucharist. Deepen your faith, in proportion to your culture, convinced that there is no opposition between faith and science. Do not let yourselves be seduced by any intellectual doctrine. Trust in the Church: despite its imperfections, it transmits to you the message of Christ and his sacraments with certainty. As one of your local proverbs says: "Do not reject the canoe that has taken you to the other shore". The Church is not a sect born yesterday, it is the great current of life that comes from Christ through the apostles. And I dare say: do not be content to receive. Do not remain on the side of the road. You are the Church. Build it in your environment with your priests, your spiritual assistants, your Christian professors, your Catholic movements. Be apostles for this new world.

One day, Saint Peter, like Jesus, said to a cripple in Jerusalem: “Get up and walk”. May the Lord, with his Spirit, be your joy, your love, your strength! May he bless you! May he bless you all, boys and girls, children of Douala and of all Cameroon!
 

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