28 April" "
The attitude of the European Church to the young must radically change for the better. She must recognize them “not only as a specific sector or object of youth apostolate”, but “as a gift of Christ to his Church in the whole of her mission. She must tackle problems and realize programmes and initiatives together with them”. That’s the appeal that emerged from the final message of the 10th Symposium of European bishops which ended in Rome on 28 April, and which saw for the first time bishops and young people sitting round the same table together. And this relation of essential equality characterizes the sense of the whole message, which invites the Church to “plan specific formative proposals that take account of the different youth terrain and are translated not into vague discourses but into personalized and hence differentiated itineraries”. Nor are analyses of the current situation lacking in the message: “Unfortunately it happens that the Church, the natural place for this meeting with Christ, is felt by many young people as remote, alien, little credible and incapable of speaking to man of our time”. Hence the emphasis placed on the “need for Christian communities (parishes, religious institutions, movements, other ecclesial associations) capable of making a proposal of faith that is higher in goal, more demanding in quality and more profound in spirituality”. The new evangelization of Europe, says the message, will occur through “a new missionary consciousness with the courage and the creativity of concrete initiatives”, especially in some privileged fields: in a “wholly missionary” community that makes “credible and significant” the witness to the Gospel in society; by “conducting mission” in the particular circumstances of one’s own environment (work, study, leisure time…) and by “intervening as Christians in the cultural, economic, social and political decisions, now of European extension, with the indispensable competence and action; by confronting Christian truths “either ignored or not well expressed”, such as “Christian initiation and the sacrament of confirmation, the true and liberating understanding of Christian sexuality and chastity, the educational role of the family, and the grace of the sacrament of reconciliation and of pardon”. Moreover, write the European bishops, “we are insistently called to realize a new image of a credible and liveable Christian community, characterized by the courage of truth, the forgiveness of our enemies, ecumenical dialogue, gratuitous self-giving in the most demanding vocations (such as the priesthood and the consecrated life), service to the poor and the weak, the defence of life from the very first moment of its natural conception, the commitment to justice, peace and the safeguard of the creation. Lastly, the European bishops feel challenged by the requests made by the young present at the Symposium, who want to be considered “a present and actual resource of the Church, on which it can rely here and now”. The young also ask the bishops to find “the specific time for meeting and dialogue with them, also making use of the form of correspondence”.
