Moment of grace

During the 97th meeting of the plenary Assembly of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE) held in Madrid from February 28 until March 4 participants will rejuvenate CEE appointments for the years 2011-2014. In his welcoming address, the Apostolic nuncio to Spain Msgr. Renzo Fratini wished participants a fruitful meeting.A particular moment. In the opening speech of the meeting Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE), archbishop of Madrid, invited “all the faithful, the youth in particular” to attend the WYD in Madrid in August 2011, “the feast of faith, the encounter of world youth wanted by the Holy Father”. “There’s still a short time to go”, His Eminence said, referring to the WYD celebration, pointing out that “preparations for the Day have been ongoing for the past two years. The pilgrimage of the Cross of the Icon of the Holy Virgin across Spanish dioceses are a moment of true grace. But the months leading to the summer must be a special time for prayer and spiritual disposition in preparation for the major encounter of Madrid 2011”. For the cardinal, “the World Youth Day 2011 is a providential tool to the service of the Church’s missionary commitment in the evangelization of the youth”.Cross-current proposal. “The apostolic vision of John Paul II, enlightened by his deep love for Christ and for the youth – remarked cardinal Rouco Varela -, is the tool by means of which the Divine Providence bestowed upon the Church the new evangelizing system addressed to the young generations of the end of the 20th and early 21st centuries”. His Eminence provided an excursus on the youth, on their dreams and on their ideals, that include the ever-pervasive role of the web, notably among the young. Cardinal Rouco Varela pointed out: “Youth evangelizing mission must focus on the full proclamation of Jesus”. Nonetheless, “after two-thousand years of evangelization the Church is faced with the fact that Jesus Christ continues to be scarcely known and loved. In far-dated Christianization countries there are those who follow explicitly – or implicitly – apostatical movements that distanced them from their faith. While many others, in countries with recently-established Christian traditions, have never met Jesus Christ, not even in an elementary manner”. There is the need for a new evangelization that will make Christ known, even if this proposal is a “cross-current proposal”. Moreover, this is precisely the proposal that the youth “are awaiting, whether they know it or not”.Bearing Christian witness. “The World Youth Days – recalled cardinal Rouco Varela – are also a major Church experience. The youth seek Christ and seek those with whom they can share the encounter with Him, know Him and follow Him with perseverance”. To this regard dioceses have “a major responsibility”, along with the bishops, parents, priests, Catholic teachers, catechists, and all baptized faithful, “who are called to act as true witnesses of the Lord for the next generations”. “Even though Catholic youth know they can be the best evangelizers of their friends and companions”. In fact, “one of the virtues of the World Youth Day is that of having shown, also through the numerous young people who are protagonists of world Catholicism, that the Catholic Church is marked by broad horizons, rich with spiritual, cultural and artistic vitality and that she has a young face”.The family and education. The prelate equally underlined two “major themes for contemporary youth, which were on the Assembly’s agenda, namely, the necessary cooperation among the family, the parish church and the school as relates to religious education of children and young people, along with the question of the truth of human love, a key element in the maturity of young people as human persons, which entails the common good of society as a whole”. “In concrete terms – His Eminence added – it is ever more evident that the future of the young generations depends on Christian families. At the same time, experience has shown that the mission of the school is hampered and even seriously hindered when it fails to enjoy parents’ cooperation and when family life is not in harmony with natural and Divine Law”. For cardinal Rouco Varela, “the State cannot replace nor deputize for the commitment of these two basic institutions for individual development. The parish church, in its capacities as a basic element of ecclesial life whereby natural man becomes Christian, given its own specific mission, must be capable of acting as a catalyzing force of Christian life for the family and in schools”.