Sentinels of ecumenical dialogue” “

John Paul II has testified once again to the fatherly affection he feels for the young throughout the world: in the greatness of his faith he did not fear revealing his physical fragility. This being with them, without having any recourse to youth fashion but rather by showing the exertion and the strength of an elderly man, made his presence felt even closer; it made his words stronger and more incisive. The finest of his words are contained in the prayer of the Mass on Sunday, 28 July, when he called the young “the new people of the Beatitudes”. A wonderful evangelical image! It’s moving to think that the 20 young people from a minority European Catholic Church like that of Greece, present in Toronto, also form part of this universal people and with their contemporaries returned home with the Pope’s invitation to be “convincing witnesses” of the Gospel “in a world that has so much need for the grace that saves”. We look forward to listening to what these youngsters have to say and reading their comments on the WYD because in this country too the media have reported with particular emphasis the Pope’s condemnation of paedophilia but have said and written little or nothing about his message of faith and hope. This silence is due both to the fact that many journalists lack any theological and ecclesial formation – a common phenomenon in Europe and in the world – and to the culture of doubt and suspicion that persists here with regard to Catholicism. And in Greece this latter aspect is particularly worrying due to an Orthodoxy that, in contrast to other Christian confessions, still remains too self-enclosed. To the youth of WYD is therefore entrusted the task, as “sentinels of the morning”, of hastening the dawn of ecumenical dialogue because happiness, or rather beatitude, is a gift and a goal of all mankind, of all men and women who follow in the footsteps of Christ. The Pope clearly said so and with equal determination asked the young to “communicate their own hope to others”. He gave young people the difficult but fascinating task of daring to hope, and of being a presence of peace and reconciliation in a culture and a political world that are privileging the culture of force and guile to solve the problems of the world. Is it too demanding a task? It’s up to the youth who were in Toronto and those who shared that experience to give a reply. Adults themselves are not exonerated from replying either. The Pope himself was the first to give a reply, the day after WYD, by boarding the airplane that was to take him to Guatemala and Mexico and to repeat his appeal also to those who follow Christ in those countries to be the “salt of the earth and the light of the world”. For Europe this was another message of hope from Latin America.