Seeking the Lost: Young Life, Pope Francis and the "Villas of Misery"

Yesterday I wrote about Jesuit father Gregory Boyle and his incarnational commitment to the lost in gangland U.S.A.[1]  I find it compelling that the same sort of vision for ministry is witnessed in the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis I.

In Buenos Aires, where Bergoglio served as archbishop for over twenty years, there are neighborhoods that locals refer to as villas miserias, or “villas of misery.”  These are Argentina’s most destitute slums, places where the poorest of the poor are found.  And these were the places that you were likely to see Jorge Mario Bergoglio. 

“He’d take the bus and just come walking around the corner like a normal guy,” reported one of the local priests.  “It was the most natural thing in the world.  He’d sit around and drink tea, talking with people about whatever was going on.  He’d start talking to the doorman even.  He was totally comfortable.”[2]

Bergoglio’s vision for ministry, witnessed in his life in the villas miserias, is precisely the vision of Young Life.  Catholics and Young Life leaders, all people of God, are called to a life of compassion, “going directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home there.”[3]  It is a participation in the very life of God who took on flesh and “moved into the neighborhood” of humanity.  This point cannot be overstated.  As the Lord Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”[4]

Young Life is responding to the universal call of mission, to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to every kid, everywhere.  In the same spirit, Pope Francis is calling for a “missionary church, one that moves out of the sacristy and into the streets,” noted one of his close friends, Bishop Jorge Eduardo Lozano.[5]  It is there where we’ll meet the lost, the broken, the wounded.

Whether it be the slums of Argentina or the suburbs of the U.S., the problems facing our young people are the same.  "Drugs are a symptom, violence is a symptom, but marginalization is the disease,” notes Pope Francis.  “Our people feel marginalized by a social system that's forgotten about them and isn't interested in them."[6]  This is precisely the assessment of adolescent youth presented by Chap Clark, professor of youth, family and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary.  “The root of the issues related to contemporary adolescence has to do with leaving this age group to flounder on its own.”  Beneath the carefree and often rebellious veneer of youth culture, Clark’s research reveals a desperate world where kids are struggling to survive.

“The answer,” Clark says, “is relationships with adults who sincerely care.  That is the sole need of this abandoned generation.”[7]  Young Life and the Catholic Church can do this together.  The kids are waiting, wishing . . .

I Wish . . .

I wish I could tell secrets

To someone who would listen.

To someone who wouldn’t tell.

I wish I could meet that special someone.

Someone who loves me.

Someone who cares for me.

I wish I could talk to someone.

Someone who would understand.

Someone who wouldn’t laugh.

I wish I had a best friend.

Someone I can trust,

Someone I can tell secrets to.

Someone who understands me,

Someone who will grow with me,

Someone I can talk to.[8]

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            [1]  For more information on Fr. Gregory Boyle’s ministry to L.A. gang members, please pick up a copy of his astonishing book: Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. http://www.amazon.com/Tattoos-Heart-Power-Boundless-Compassion/dp/1439153159/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365619646&sr=8-1&keywords=tattoos+on+the+heart

            [2]  See John Allen’s piece “Pope Francis gets his ‘oxygen’ from the slums,” National Catholic Reporter (April 7, 2013) accessed 4/10/2013 at: http://ncronline.org/node/49246

            [3]  Henri Nouwen, Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life, NY: DoubleDay, 1982, 27.

            [4]  John 20:21

            [5] John Allen, “Pope Francis gets his ‘oxygen’ from the slums,” National Catholic Reporter (April 7, 2013) accessed 4/10/2013 at: http://ncronline.org/node/49246

            [6]  Ibid.

            [7] Chap Clark, Hurt: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004.

            [8]  This poem was written by an American teenager; Ibid, 173.