VATICAN CITY

Jan. 31, 2019

(Excerpt) A priest must be able to see the people around him as his children, as brothers and sisters, and must be willing to risk everything for them out of love, Pope Francis said in his morning homily.

In fact, the best example of this kind of priest is St. John Bosco, the founder of the Salesian order, he said Jan. 31, the saint’s feast day.

The 19th-century Italian saint, who saw so much poverty and so many children living on the street, was able to see the world around him with the eyes of “a man who is a brother and also a father and said, ‘No, things cannot go on this way!'” …

…St. John Bosco did not approach the poor and troubled kids “just with the catechism and the crucifix,” he said. If he had started with doctrine, telling the kids, “‘Do this…’ the young people would have said, ‘Yeah, right. See you later.'”

Instead, St. John Bosco approached them with youthful vitality, letting them play, bringing them together as a group, like brothers, listening to them, crying with them, leading them forward and always being down-to-earth, he said.

See the full Catholic News Service article in the Catholic Register.