26 April" "
“Ecumenism isn’t a dream. We young people are advancing side by side on the road of ecumenism. We aren’t dreaming, we’re wide awake”: these are the words of a Scottish Catholic youth, Chris Docherty. The second day of the 10th Symposium of European bishops held in Rome from 24 to 28 April on the theme: “Youth of Europe in the process of change. Laboratory of the faith”, opened with a fervent appeal for ecumenism expressed by the young delegates who took part in the round table. The words of the young Scot were echoed by those of Daniela Lucia Rapisarda, Protestant, secretary general of the World Federation of Christian Students-Europe Region, an ecumenical organization based in Oslo and founded in 1895 to promote the meeting between youth of different confessions. Daniela is convinced that “as young Christian Europeans we do not minimize our Christian heritage, our faith, our commitment. At the same time we want Europe to be an open space, ready to accept also those who aren’t Christian. Without forgetting our own identity, we want to construct a house that provides a home to people of other cultures and faiths, and that succeeds in containing a diversity of people without this becoming the cause of terrible conflicts”. Daniela speaks of the ecumenical experience as a process that requires the “willingness to be placed in question and transformed”. but also “a profound knowledge of one’s own theological and spiritual heritage” in order to “defend its validity”. The Orthodox Lydia Obolensky D’Aloisio, representing Syndesmos (the World Federation of Orthodox youth movements) prefers not to draw distinctions between youth and adults (“there must be no ageism in the Church and in evangelization”). She appeals to Christians of all confessions for “a creative and positive attitude to the reality that surrounds us, as the condition ‘sine qua non’ of evangelization”. In her view, the two means of turning Christians into evangelizers are the learning of a real language and the raising of the level of responsibility within the Church.
