"The Pope believes in us"

The 17th World Youth Day ended on 28 July, with the Mass presided over by the Pope. Some 800,000 young people were present in Downsview Park in Toronto, under the pouring rain. The Pope entrusted to them the task of “humanizing the world in which we live”, and imbuing it with a “renewed sense of brotherhood and solidarity”. We gathered the impressions of some European protagonists of WYD. “Unforgettable days!” That’s how the youth who thronged the streets of Toronto from 18 to 28 July will remember their experiences during the 17th World Youth Day (WYD). Rocío, 23 years’ old, from Madrid ( Spain) says that “the finest experience was listening to the testimony of the Holy Father. In seeing him, I understood what it means to be a man of God. I feel ready to take seriously his invitation to us to ‘be a new generation’. If the Pope told us to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, and entrusted to us the world of the future, that means he has faith in us”. Also of the same view is Michele, 29 years’ old, from Piacenza ( Italy): “The Pope has immense faith in the young: if he told us we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth, that means that he believes is us. And he therefore believes that a better world is possible. He placed us before an alternative. And we are here to tell him that we choose the good, we choose the light that he indicated to us”. Stefanie, 20 years’ old, from the province of Hannover ( Germany), will take home with her “the communion shared with the youth of other countries”. Stories of kids who, in spite of their age, have already had to come to terms with the reality of war were not lacking in Toronto. Among them, Sanja, 17 years’ old: she lives in Stockholm, but was born and brought up in Doboj, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. “We fled in 1993 – she reminiscences – due to the war. I was only 7 years’ old at the time, but I remember everything vividly: the gunfire, the fear, the people running, the despair of those who had seen members of their own families dying. It was terrible”. “My hope – adds Sanja – is that the world may become a better place. I know it will be difficult. The future depends on the ability of different peoples to live together and respect each other, for what they are. I have seen what happens when people hate each other. I think that the religions, especially the Christians and the Moslems, have an enormous responsibility: that of showing to the world that peace is possible”. WYD was also an experience of “exchange between Europeans and North Americans”. Convinced of this is Archbishop Josip Bozanic of Zagreb ( Croatia) and vice-president of the Council of the European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE). In the view of the archbishop of Zagreb, another positive result of WYD is that “European youth recognized each other as Europeans and discovered that together they can create a European community”. Msgr. Bozanic also noted “the faith that the Pope has in the young”, a faith so strong that he calls them the “evangelizers” of the twenty-first century. It is just this mandate, says Bishop Edoardo Menichelli of Chieti-Vasto (Italy), that must impel the youth of the Western world “to rediscover a kind of indignation towards reality and express the joyful rebellion that is necessary in our time, increasingly impenetrable to spiritual mystery”. “What will remain impressed on my mind about the Canadian WYD – adds Msgr. Menichelli – is the obedience of the young people to the exacting demands of the timetable, the events. I am certain they will be capable of embracing the challenge that the Pope entrusted to them, that of building the future and not letting themselves be conditioned too much by pre-packaged social models”. Now that the curtain has come down on Toronto, preparations have already begun for the next WYD, scheduled to be held in Cologne, in Germany, in 2005. In the view of Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the German Episcopal Conference and archbishop of Mainz, the event will represent both “a reward and a challenge”. Indeed, points out the cardinal, “welcoming the youth of the world to Germany, in the way we were welcomed in Canada, represents a great responsibility for the German Catholic Church. As in Canada, the young people will be welcomed as guests by families in German dioceses several days before the WYD meeting true and proper, scheduled to take place from 16 to 21 August 2005”. Maria Chiara Biagioni and Patrizia Caiffa sir correspondents in Toronto