From November 18 to 21, more than 200 youth ministers and delegates from around the world attended the international online meeting organised by the Youth Office of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, which also coordinates World Youth Day (WYD).
The meeting, originally scheduled for April this year in Rome, had to be postponed on account of the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic.
With international travel being risky and restricted, the virtual gathering of the delegates was organised to discuss the pastoral and logistic arrangements for the forthcoming WYD, scheduled for August 2023 in Lisbon. It was also an occasion to listen to the organising committee of the 2019 World Youth Day in Panama and to reflect on the theme of synodality and to get to know the Local Organising Committee of Portugal.
The four-day gathering addressed matters related to the timing of the WYD, security and food, visas and transportation. Delegates expressed gratitude for the organisation of the WYD Panama and also had suggestions for the future, helping the Portuguese team to incorporate the changes into their programmes.
Panama was a great experience of joy and celebration, of catechesis and renewal, a time of new friendships and a chance to learn from Mary who is the “servant of the Lord” (Luke 1: 38)—the theme of the World Youth Day in Panama. Reports from the organising team from Panama reiterated the fact that the WYD is a precious tool in evangelising young people.
How can we be evangelisers without putting our confidence in the Lord? Our Blessed Mother is the model. In his video message, broadcast during the meeting, Pope Francis came back to this welcoming spirit of the Panamanian people and the Latin American Church, thanking them for everything he had himself witnessed in Panama: small gestures of love, but with greater impact on the celebrations. Muchas gratias Panama! Many from the virtual audience shared similar experiences either by raising their hands to speak or by leaving messages in the chat box.
As such, synodality is a key to interacting with young people, to transmitting the faith and to addresssing the missionary challenges of the present age with new insights and to making them participants of the life of the Church.
Sister Nathalie Becquart of France, consultor at the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, and currently studying in the Unites States was the guest speaker on the theme of synodality. In her presentation, she pointed out that the concept of synodality is not a “technique” but a journey. We are called to walk together as people of God, having in mind that the Church of Jesus is place where no one is to be left behind. Together in the same boat, we advance and face the joys and challenges in the spirit of unity and total confidence in the Lord. The term synodality would mean a structured conversation among all of the relevant ecclesial players—bishops, priests and laity—for the sake of hearing the voice of the Spirit.
As such, synodality is a key to interacting with young people, to transmitting the faith and to addresssing the missionary challenges of the present age with new insights and to making them participants of the life of the Church.
However, this concept is hard to practice due to hesitations, fears of losing control by the leadership, the insecurities linked to clericalism. For the spirit of synodality to bear fruit in our lives demands a spirit of conversion. Synodality could be described as a moment to be grasped in the life of the Church. Young people were also invited to share about their experience of synodality in their own God-given contexts.
In his homily, Pope Francis reminded the young people that we were created “to make God’s dreams come true in this world.” He invited them “not to give up on great dreams. Let us not settle only for what is necessary.”
The organising team for WYD Lisbon briefed the participating delegates on the preparatory work underway for the 2023 event. The Marian logo was designed to communicate the World Youth Day theme selected by Pope Francis: “Mary arose and went with haste,” from St. Luke’s account of the Virgin Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth after the Annunciation. The logo also presents the colours of Portugal.
The organising committee also presented a virtual introduction to the local Church. A message from Patriarch Manuel III of Lisbon, echoed that WYD Lisbon would be a great moment of youth encounter with faith and evangelisation. Applying the spirit of synodality, the Portugal Organising Committee counts on the co-responsibility of all the co-organisers from across the world.
The Mass of the solemnity of Christ the King, celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica, was the culminating moment of the gathering. The pope also oversaw the traditional handing over of the World Youth Day cross and Marian icon (Salus Populi Romani), to a delegation from Portugal.
In his homily, Pope Francis reminded the young people that we were created “to make God’s dreams come true in this world.” He invited them “not to give up on great dreams. Let us not settle only for what is necessary.”
The pope challenged the young people and said, to choose life means to resist the ‘throwaway culture’ and the desire to have everything now, in order to direct our lives towards the goal of heaven, towards God’s dreams. “Let us look to Jesus and ask him for the courage to choose what is best for us, to enable us to follow Him in the way of love. And in this way, we discover joy,” the pope said.
Before the ceremony of the handing over of the World Youth Day cross and the Salus Populi Romani Marian icon from Panama to Portugal, Pope Francis also announced that he had decided to move the annual diocesan-level youth day celebration from Palm Sunday to Christ the King Sunday, beginning next year. “The centre of the celebration remains the Mystery of Jesus Christ the Redeemer of Man, as Saint John Paul II, the initiator and patron of WYD, always emphasised,” he said.
Pope Francis had a power-packed message for the youth: “Dear young people, cry out with your life that Christ lives and reigns. If you keep silent, the very stones will cry out” (cf. Luke 19: 40). In a world where faith seems to have become secondary, these words are a call to an active and meaningful presence in the world. Can one believe in Jesus and yet remain shy?
Father Dominique Mukonda CICM
Chairperson, The Diocesan Youth Commission
The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong
