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INTRODUCTION

At times the world shows a negative and false image of youth, presenting it as lost in worldly things and without a future. It is sad to see that this is the idea that adults have of young people. Sometimes they forget their duty to empower young people to discover their true identity as living images of God and to live it in a dignified manner. Often young people are identified as generations that suffer a crisis of religious, cultural, political, social and economic identity. But this identity crisis often depends on the different realities in which they live, see and judge the world, a world in which the moral aspects in the political, social and religious spheres are almost non-existent. It is precisely in this kind of situation that the mission of Franciscan Youth is to show the world that young people still feel able to reactivate the flame of faith, so that they will never lose the hope of identifying themselves with those disciples of Jesus who have been called to be light of the world and salt of the earth. Their active participation in the recent Synod of Bishops centered on the theme «young people, faith and vocational discernment». Their engaging joy manifested not only in World Youth Days but also in the most humble and simple parish meetings and the presence in the various projects and proposals of the Church. All this shows that young people still continue to turn their eyes to Jesus, in order to be totally «rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving» (Cf. Col 2,7). If this is the daily attitude of young people, there is still hope that they can live their identity and mission.