Scandinavian society is secularized. It is a society in which the young “perceive themselves as individuals in a world shaped by non-Christian values”, and in which the Christian values are for the most part transmitted by the Lutheran Church. The way of evangelization is that of youth work within the parish communities, “as in the case of the service of altar-boys or of the choir, where there are those who take an active part in the liturgy”. Also useful is the “contact with the new movements and ecclesial communities and participation in major events like World Youth Days”. Faith is transmitted to many adolescents within their own family but these traditional forms of devotion are difficult to relate to the problems of modern society. Work on the young understood as laboratory of faith” must therefore be reconverted into a friendly approach because the traditional activities of the youth apostolate have been shown to be inadequate. “Attention to the situation of the individual, parents’ witness of faith, experience of the meeting with priests, search for justice”: these are the basic ingredients needed to enable young people to develop their own journey of faith. An important role is also played by the “dimension of the meeting with Christ through the sacred scriptures and the experiences of prayer and the courage of a life with Jesus, like that of the first Christians”, together with the experience of the entire community of the Church, adults and children together, in such a way that the Church may be experienced as a place for friendship. “The young therefore are not just the object, but the subject of evangelization”; they are called to contribute to the dialogue inside the Church, also at the ecumenical and interreligious levels and to dialogue with non-believers.
