Pope Leo XIV: beneath adolescents' armour lies "the desire to love and to be loved"

Pope Leo XIV received participants in the International Congress on School and University Pastoral Care, organised by the Dicastery for Culture and Education. "Beneath the armour that so many adolescents build so as not to suffer lies the desire to love and to be loved," he said (our translation), urging attention to "conditions of existential distress. Wounded families, digital loneliness, a sense of inadequacy or fear in the face of a future that seems uncertain" (ANSA, our translation). La Repubblica also reports his warning against a "misunderstood meritocracy". The congress, "Drawing New Maps of Hope", is being held at the Vatican on October 22-23.