BE AUTHENTIC TEACHERS OF LIFE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

VATICAN CITY, APR 6, 2000 (VIS) - Sixty participants in the General Chapter of the Congregation of the Brothers of Christian Education of Ploermel, France, were welcomed at noon today by the Holy Father who highlighted the chapter's theme of "Rediscovering and Living the Mennaisien Charism in Creative Fidelity."

"Seeing God and wishing only God in everything," said the Pope, "this is how one can translate the motto which inspired the entire existence of Venerable Jean-Marie de la Mennais, your founder together with Fr. Gabriel Deshayes, and which he left you as an inspiration in your mission of educating young people: God alone." He added that "Numerous youth formed in your schools have been marked by these two words which sum up so well your spirituality."

"In abandoning yourselves to Providence," observed John Paul II, "you can consecrate yourselves with ardor to your work of educating and of being for young people authentic teachers of life. In a world marked by fragility and social and family difficulties, it is important to prepare the future by proposing to youth an integral formation, which will help them discover spiritual, moral and human principles, so that they may fashion their personality and participate actively in the life of society."

In closing, the Pope cited the Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Vita Consecrata" and told the Brothers that, in pursuing their "efforts to form young people, especially in socially deprived milieux or amongst the most deprived peoples, you are courageously showing that 'the preferential love for the poor finds a special application in the choice of means capable of freeing people from that grave form of poverty which is the lack of cultural and religious training'."

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