YOUTH
The national Catholic Youth Day (KJD) was held at Niewegein, near Utrecht, in recent days. Some 1,800 Catholic youths took part in it. Monsignor Everard de Jong, delegate for youth pastoral care within the Dutch Bishops’ Conference, is of the view that the chance to meet together is one of the most important aspects of KJD. “But it’s very important that young people be also able to meet each other regularly throughout the year, at weekly intervals. I asked myself – continues de Jong – to what world these children will return after this day. That’s why we need to insist on the importance of small Christian communities”. The fact that 1,800 youths participated in the rally De Jong considers a good result. But – he wonders – “can they guarantee the future of the Catholic faith in the Netherlands? If I think that some 700,000 youths could have been here…”. And yet de Jong expresses great confidence in the new generations of Catholics, especially in the youth group that organized the KJD through their own conviction. Cardinal Simonis also judges positively the fact “that the young have assumed responsibility”, stressing that “it wasn’t the bishops that took in hand the organization” of the meeting. In his view the result is impressive: “last year there was still an echo of WYD in Cologne, its influence was strong”, and this was an encouraging sign for the future of the Catholic faith in Holland. Speaking to the Dutch Catholic news bulletin www.katolieknederland.nl Simonis declared: “10 years ago we could never have hoped that such a day would be possible”.
