(ANS - Vatican City)- "I would like to say something else. It is about working with young unemployed people. I believe that there is an urgent need for religious congregations whose charism is for education, but also for lay people, lay educators, to start short courses, ‘emergency schools’." In an interview on Rádio Renascença, Pope Francis returned to the topic of vocational education. He demonstrated his knowledge and admiration for Don Bosco, as he had done in Turin on 21 June in his meeting with the Salesian Family at the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians.

On that occasion the Pope spoke of the need for "an education suited to the crisis", with short courses in vocational training and "schools of arts and crafts", an area that is typical of Salesian education. He posed an open question to the congregation: "Are today’s Salesians capable of educating that will meet this urgent need?"

In an interview published on 8 September with the journalist Aura Vistas Miguel, he returned to the theme:

"Then a young person who is unemployed, could study for six months and become a chef, a gas worker, a plumber a heating engineer or even a painter - given that the ceiling always needs re-doing. Then, with a trade, they are able to find a job, even if it is only temporary. They could do casual work. And so they are not completely unemployed. But today is the day, it's time for emergency education. That is what Don Bosco did. When Don Bosco saw how many young people there were on the streets, he decided that some kind of education was needed.  But you could not send those young people to ordinary schools, so he taught them a trade. He trained carpenters and plumbers. He taught them how to work and then they were able to earn a living. This is what Don Bosco did."

Later the Pope showed once again the esteem he has for the holy founder of the Salesian Family. He sees him as an example of a Church that does not run away from danger, but goes to the help of the people in need:

"Now I want to tell a story about Don Bosco. Here, in Rome there is a place in Trastevere (Testaccio, Editor's note) which used to a very poor area but is now a ​​fashionable nightspot for young people. Well, Don Bosco passed that way once in a carriage or cart, I do not know which. Somebody threw a stone that broke the glass. He stopped the carriage and said, 'This is the place where we need to start a foundation'. In other words, he did not see it as an attack. He saw it as a challenge, to help people, children, young people, who knew no other way to react than by attacking.  And today in that place there is a Salesian parish educating young people with its schools and other activities".

The full interview, in which the Pope addresses a variety of issues - from welcoming refugees to privacy, from the welfare society to eternity, from the Synod on the family to the Jubilee of Mercy ... can be read here.

Published 15/09/2015