According to the Institute of Research on Youth (ÖIJ), the ecclesial context is, in the great majority of cases, not the sphere in which young people make their first experiences of the faith, even if 45% of the young describe themselves as religious; that’s why there’s a need for “new forms of liturgy” that young people may like and that may “transmit the positive image of a Church that adolescents can identify with”; commendable in this sense is the effect of World Youth Days and the new ecclesial movements, which have encouraged the renewed interest of the young in liturgical celebrations. The perception of a “dryasdust Church”, of the Church as a relic of the past, drives the young away. By contrast, “the richness of religious offers (Masses for the young, meditations) and socio-political involvement succeed in keeping young people involved who would perhaps otherwise have already abandoned the Church and an active religious life”. A strong influence on young people’s journey of faith is also exerted by “their personal experience of childhood: family life, parish contacts and the facilities given to them to enable them to develop their own religious experience” once they have grown up and “begin to come to terms with the practical contents of the faith and recall their positive experience of adolescence”. So the challenge is that of offering them a multiplicity of relations, guidance, spiritual experience and opportunities for socio-political participation, corresponding to the multiplicity of the facets of their young personalities. The search for a positive image of the world, of meaning and identity, of the link of their own faith with the Church and with the community of all believers means that young people need to be accompanied on their spiritual journey. To this is added “the willingness of the bishop to enter into dialogue with them and to listen to what they have to say during meetings.”
