27 April" "
In Europe, the young feel they are living in a “sick world that transmits too saccharine an image of man”. That’s the opinion expressed by Cardinal Adrianus Simonis, archbishop of Utrecht (Netherlands), in speaking at the 10th Symposium of European bishops recently held in Rome. “The contemporary world said another Dutch bishop, Everard De Jong of Roemond is a world that proposes to teenagers ways of escape, shortcuts, where it is difficult to find the true way that is Jesus, the one alternative “to the spiritual desert bred by the widespread affluence” of our time. It is almost inevitable that in this extremely dispersive environment “the youngsters most disadvantaged are often those who have experienced serious difficulties in relating to Christianity. They are often persons Simonis continued who have most difficulty in relating to others; but are searching for warmth and consolation”. There is something, however, that European youth have in common and that is, in the judgement of Msgr. De Jong, “the search for emotions. That’s why they love World Youth Days with the Pope, precisely because they perceive them in the form of strong emotion”. In the view of the young Romanian Vlad Naumescu, delegate of the Episcopal Conference in his country, the young “want greater dialogue”; they ask to be “involved in a professional manner”: they wish “to collaborate with their bishops”; they would prefer to have “a youth office at the local level and not a centralized one, because “they fear to be too institutionalized”.
