Argentinean Cardinal exhorts young people “broaden their horizons” 

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jan 22, 2004 / 22:00 pm

During a Mass celebrated Wednesday at St. Agnes Parish in Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of the Argentinean capital, said that while abortion is a crime that destroys children, false values are also destructive.

Children “are destroyed, first by the grievous murder of abortion, preventing their arrival into this world, a horrendous crime.  But children are also destroyed when values are stolen from them and they are instead taught false values.”

Making his comments on the feast of St. Agnes, the patroness of purity, the Cardinal said, “You must by young people of broad horizons.  Notice how the world, this civilization, seeks to destroy the pillars of hope in a people.  The world in which we live seeks to destroy young people, it seeks to destroy the elderly; that is the spirit of the world.”

Today’s society “numbs” young people, which means it “steals from them their ideals, it limits their horizons, it steals their greatness.  It steals from them that path to maturity that leads to victory.  All young people, called to be good, should grown in maturity in order to succeed,” the Cardinal said.

“To be young,” he explained, “is to be encouraged to have broad vision, and not be closed in on oneself.  To be young is to mature towards victory, that is, to learn to struggle, to work, to see the world with broader vision.  To be young is to achieve greatness.  And this is not easy, because everywhere in our society, young people are offered a narrow vision without horizons.”

Young people,” he emphasized, “you are called to great things, to service to your neighbor, to lead our people forward, to form a family and pass on values.  Do not let yourselves by fooled, do not let yourselves by numbed.  Not everything that glitters is gold.”

Finally, the Cardinal exhorted young people to seek after “the precious pearl, that of greatness and of vision.”