The Pope’s Message to Young Workers: A Call to Uphold Human Dignity in the Workplace
In a message addressed to participants of the third edition of “LaborDì,” organized by the ACLI of Rome, the Pope urges the new generations not to succumb to “polluted” professional environments where it is normal to settle for anything in order to achieve social prestige or money. He emphasizes that alongside the cold “performances” of machines, human creativity and “imagination” will always play a crucial role.
By Edoardo Giribaldi – Vatican City
An invitation to resist demands that “humiliate,” the need to sometimes accept things to pave the way in a world of work that is tainted by challenging models. Models where social prestige and money seem to be the only goals. Environments where the “performances” of machines are not everything, and where it is essential to combine “the imagination for which God has made us all different.”
READ THE FULL MESSAGE FROM POPE FRANCIS
Breaking Out of “Dens,” We Are Made for the Open
“We are ‘unique pieces,’ let’s help each other remember that,” is the Pope’s exhortation to the participants of the third edition of “LaborDì,” a project aimed at “promoting and putting back at the center dignified work” promoted by the ACLI of Rome.
“Perhaps work has seemed to you until now like a problem for adults. As an elderly bishop of Rome, I would like to tell you: it is not so!” explains Francis, noting the commitment and energy required for the growth of new generations. Each person may have “wasted good opportunities,” but should never tire of leaving their “dens”: those refuges built when faced with “confusion and threats.”
A “Gentle Revolution” Based on Relationships and Uniqueness
From the “cry of the Earth” and its “wrong model of development,” the Pope reflects on the interconnectedness present in every human being mentioned in the encyclical Laudato si’. “Human,” is also the world of work, albeit sometimes tainted “by negative dynamics and behaviors that sometimes make it unlivable.” In professional environments, it is “our connections” that matter more than “numbers and performances.” Cultivating them, combining them with the awareness of one’s “uniqueness – which transcends any success or failure,” can trigger a “gentle revolution.”
The Heart, “Place of Decisions,” Where Dreams Arise
The Pope evokes the image of the construction site, proposed during the second edition of LaborDì, also familiar for the works in view of the Jubilee. This year, however, he invites reflection on the heart. It is present “even in the messages you exchange every day,” it is in the Bible “the place of decisions,” where “aspirations arise,” “dreams spring up,” “resistances are felt,” and “laziness creeps in.”
The “Breath on the Neck” that Causes Loneliness and Resignation
The Pope denounces the often oppressive speed that characterizes today’s work environment. The “breath on the neck” of many people, their “many requests, sometimes too many instructions and recommendations,” should not alienate the new generations, extinguishing their dreams, making them “lonely and resigned.”
The Risk of Becoming “Cogs in a Machine”
According to Francis, entering the world of work happens “together.” Otherwise, the risk is to become “cogs in a machine,” where those “in power could make anything of us.” A model contrary to this alienation is that of the ACLI, where “the insights of the heart” turn into “social ties.”
Human Imagination, “Creating What Is Not Yet There”
To lack these qualities puts “the human dignity of those who work, or cannot find work, or adapt” to an “unworthy” job at risk. Alongside the tasks of machines, the purely “human” intelligence of the heart must be added, “the reason that understands the reasons of others, the imagination that creates what is not yet.”
Adults Should Not Corrupt the Youth’s “Novelty”
Finally, Francis thanks the adults present, urging them not to bend the young people “to the reasons of the existing.” “Let’s not corrupt their novelty,” he adds, encouraging them to introduce them step by step “to long times and even to the weight of responsibilities,” trusting “in what is sown in their hearts.” There, “the work that does not alienate but liberates” sprouts.
