EDITORIAL

22 May, 2017: It is 10:35 PM, local time. The concert of American pop star Ariana Grande at the Manchester City Arena turns into a night of terror when a terrorist attack kills 22 people, many young; in the following days, repeated attacks in Egypt, Afghanistan, and even more recently in London, the number of victims tragically increases.

The middle class of holiness

During a recent meeting in the Vatican of Salesian novices with Pope Francis, one of the novices asked for a few words about holiness. And the Pope replied: " 'Walk in my presence and be blameless.' This is the best definition of holiness. These are God's words addressed to Abraham. Dominic Savio was in the habit of living in God's presence and, even now, I believe that today we can be saints. There are heroic people, parents, grandparents, young people, hidden saints, or as someone of French origin, said: 'people who belong to the middle class of holiness' that you do not see but they are there."

On a day of protests and clashes in Venezuela, two young people were assassinated. Carlos José Moreno Barón was killed while on his way to a football pitch.  He did not reach his destination. Paola Ramírez Gómez, 23, was killed while returning from a job interview as she was passing in front of San Carlos Square in San Cristóbal. Neither of them was participating in the protests.

Surprising everyone yet again, Pope Francis, together with thousands of young people last weekend in Milan, has raised a new challenge for the Church, offering the wonderful task of confronting the reality of young people, talking to them, listening to them and together with them being challenged in the light of the Gospel.

InfoANS

ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication, the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007.

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