Mattarella tells Villa Nazareth students the future is not predetermined and belongs to young people

Speech at the Quirinale

On 31 October, President Sergio Mattarella received a delegation of students from the Villa Nazareth university college at the Quirinale, led by Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The visit fell on the college's 80th anniversary, and Parolin chairs both the Sacra Famiglia di Nazareth Foundation and the Domenico Tardini community association. Mattarella described the present as a difficult and complex period in which uncertainty is widespread and unpredictability at times seems to define international affairs. He argued that this uncertainty shows the future is not fixed.

“The future is not predetermined, it depends on us. It needs to be designed, especially by the young people who are about to take on the guidance of our society.”

A task for the young

Mattarella said that turning values into concrete behaviour in order to build society is the students' task, carried out with the support of former pupils of the college. He called this a task his country urgently needs, as does the international community as a whole. He cited the Holy Father and Cardinal Parolin when framing the message. He also said the college's motto, ut unum sint, was extraordinarily explicit and meaningful, and that the link between generations of pupils was a model of this work.

Sense of community

“We have a great need to develop, and to acquire ever more, the sense of community that in our country finds many expressions.”

Mattarella pointed to phenomena, initiatives and gatherings in Italian society that show a particularly high sensitivity to solidarity and to the needs of others. He concluded that in this period there is a strong need to restate the importance and meaning of community, which he said Villa Nazareth embodies. Reports on the same day described the words as a message to Italy's young generation.

Backdrop of street protests

Speech coverage placed the remarks against a wave of youth demonstrations in Italian cities over the cost of living, rearmament and war. Il Messaggero named Rome, Turin, Naples and Milan among the cities where young people were filling squares and asking for answers. Some of the marches were marked by clashes and tensions with police, and some protesters, in the paper's words, turned to violence. Mattarella made no direct reference to the demonstrations in his remarks.