28 April" "
“A service institution”: that’s the dangerous image that the Church of Northern Europe risks assuming in the eyes of the young. The point was made by Bishop Gerhard Schwenzer of Oslo in his report to the recent Symposium on youth on 27 April. “The participation of the young in Mass” he added, “is reduced to a space to be occupied; just one slot among the many into which their life is divided: sport, leisure, school”. The other bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Northern Europe endorsed his judgement. So how can the young be involved in the structures of the Church and in participation in parish life? That’s “the real problem, because”, continued Schwenzer, “these kids don’t want to be hectored in a loud voice, they don’t want to be involved in emotions”, whereas “the person who transmits must be fired by passion, as only in this way can the faith be transmitted”. Also very significant for youth involvement in the life of the Church is “language”, which often , in the view of Msgr. Everard De Jong, of the Dutch Episcopal Conference, “is a language foreign to the person listening to it, since “it speaks of contents of which the young are ignorant”. “It need to be translated”, agrees Schwenzer, “and the concepts and contents need to be explained” in such a way that “it may become a practical language”, in which “the words are the mirror of the contents”; “the language of each of us is instilled in us by the family from which we come, concludes Msgr. Noel Treanor from Belgium, “and very often these kids lack a family from which to learn this language”.
