Free them from loneliness ” “

What do the young ask of the new Europe that is taking shape? But above all, how do the young feel in Europe today? To understand better the state of mind, ambitions and aspirations of modern youth, SirEurope, on the eve of the 18th World Youth Day (Sunday 13 April), interviewed Gudrun Lang , jurist and expert in theological studies in the field of marriage and family law, and Director of the European Youth Alliance, the European branch of the World Youth Alliance. What are the main questions and hopes of European youth? “Young people today are asking themselves: who are we in this Europe that is being unified? The changes taking place are momentous, and the young are trying to find an identity. Am I a citizen of my own country? Or am I a European citizen? Many young people grasp the new opportunities. They respond to the challenge of modernity. They travel, trying to create for themselves the role of “international youth”, a sociological phenomenon, but one that generates at the same time new forms of loneliness and uprootedness from family. And the phenomenon of youth unemployment is also being accentuated, with all its consequences in terms of deep individual crisis. I think that in Europe today the young are looking into a mirror and asking themselves: what kind of human person am I? Why am I human and what does that mean for me? What contribution should I make to society? Bound up with this is the question of human dignity, which tells us why we should devote ourselves to the common good and why we should relate ourselves to others. Human dignity consists in treating others with respect. By understanding ourselves, we also understand that the only way of relating ourselves to another human being is that of complete self-giving. Discovering this, we are able to answer many questions about what we ought to do: devote ourselves at all levels in activities of service to others, to give a meaning to our life Perhaps that’s why the young fail to see the meaning of life: they grew up in a hedonistic society, that blinds them but no longer fulfils them”. What ought the EU to do in terms of a real youth policy? “What already exists is positive: young people are encouraged to gain an awareness of belonging to Europe through travel, the study of languages, volunteer service abroad. What’s lacking, however, is being able to go beyond this and consider the real needs of youth. Something between the spiritual and the metaphysical. Many young people have a deep hunger for something deeper, for fixed points that may free them from the slavery of a reality that is continuously changing. At the community level, the major shortcoming is that the European Union fears to extend its own youth programme also to the family context. Yet the family remains, for good or ill, the strongest presence for every young person, and Europe has a duty to address it”. The young also have spiritual aspirations… “The young are ready for solidarity. They increasingly understand what it means to really live. We are all fed up of living only for our own personal pleasure. We know that material goods are ephemeral. We’re seeking something more permanent. Many, too many, young people have tasted the “fruits of hedonism”: separation from family and despair are its direct consequences. We want more substance, and are therefore beginning to ask our governments to really help the family as an institution, something that has never been done. People talk of abortion, but few are aware of the terrible psychological sufferings that derive from it. The young today are ready to rediscover the value of living for others because they have now understood that nothing else can really make them happy. Euthanasia is another example: people ask for it out of loneliness, because they don’t want to be a burden. What we are asking governments is to give more substantial responses to the need to give ourselves for others. Only then shall a new springtime for the European continent be possible”.