Solidarity is young

Berlin passes the baton to the European youth meeting in Rome. It was officially announced by Frère Alois, prior of the Taizé community, which each year organizes this occasion for spirituality and sharing in a European city, during the common prayer of December 30 at Messegelände, the Berlin exhibition grounds, where from December 28 to January 1st young European Christians from different confessions, including non-believers, convened for common prayer, workshops and to reflect over the future. Thus in 2012 Rome will stage the 35th Pilgrimage of Faith on Earth (December 28 – January 2): the city has already hosted these meetings in 1980, in ’82 and in ’87. However, the coming meeting is the first that takes place without its founder, frére Roger, passed away in 2005. It will be held to the presence of Benedict XVI for the first time. The meeting will be different from the previous ones and the youth will not gather for prayer inside the structure of an exhibition building but in major Roman Basilicas, and at least on one occasion, they will gather for prayer in St. Peter’s with the Pope. Participants will convene for the meals in the area of the Circo Massimo in Rome.Ready for welcome. “We welcome with much enthusiasm and joy the news of the next year’s meeting in Rome, 25 years since the last – declared Msgr. Paolo Mancini, secretary general of the vicariate in Rome to Simona Mengaschini, SIR Europe correspondent from Berlin -. On the basis of my personal experience the meetings held in the capital in the first years of the 1980s greatly helped me at the time of my vocational quest. For this, I nurture the hope that this event may bring peace and serenity in the hearts of the youth that will convene in Rome, helping them to respond to a fundamental question: what I should do with my life”. For Fr Maurizio Mirilli, in charge of youth pastoral care for the vicariate in Rome, “it is an important opportunity so that people, and notably the youth, may open up to ecumenical discourse: the European meeting called by the Taizé brothers is an opportunity to pray for Christian unity, to make the youth aware of these issues which in Catholic Rome are hard to address”. A three-year journey. On December 31st, during the last common prayer of the meeting, all those present held a lit candle in their hands whose flame came from the Jerusalem Grotto: frère Alois defined it “the flame of solidarity that each one of us can keep for himself” and announced that the theme of solidarity and of the faith in God, to which is dedicated this year’s Letter handed to all the youth present, will be the focus of a three-year journey that will conclude in the summer of 2015 in Taizé, with a solidarity gathering. The prior also said, in his conclusive reflections, that the “turmoil of global economy triggers self-questioning: inequalities increase, also in rich countries, and the uncontrolled exploitation of natural global resources will cause future conflicts”. But the “solutions to these problems aren’t only technical solutions. The turmoil we are experienced in this epoch demands a change in lifestyle”. For frére Emile the message that emerges from this encounter is: “we have to return to the sources of confidence: political systems are fragile and we need higher datum-points, and not only human ones”. Solidarity, “which some view as a trite term, may instead indicate the path that Europe should follow”. A special bond. The meeting in Berlin was marked by common prayers recited at the Messegelände, by afternoon workshops on various issues, by spiritual life, by debates on the problems of humanity, by meetings with rabbis and Imams, by the historical and cultural aspects of the hosting city. In this framework takes place the meeting with Katharina Jany, from East Berlin. In 1986, at the age of 22 she took part in the preparations for the European Youth meeting in East Berlin. It was the occasion to bring together young Christians from former Czechoslovakia and Hungary, and “never, in that period, did we envision the fall of the Communist regimes and the reunification of Germany”, Jany said. But a special bond unites the 1989 protests, that preceded the fall of the Wall, with the Taizé prayer: “the demonstrations – she recalled – began in Alexanderplatz and ended in the area of the Gethsemane Church. People were angry and worried about the police’s reactions. They feared that violence could break out. But when they entered the church and heard the canons of Taizé, and the prayers, a soothing atmosphere of peace prevailed. Everyone entered the Church, Catholics, Protestants and non-believers alike”. A special workshop brought together the young participants and German MPs. Katrin Göring-Eckardt, vice-president of the Bundestag (the Parliament), president of the Protestant Synod, said: “Taizé is energy for the soul”, while Wolfagang Thierse, politician from East Germany, member of the national council of lay Catholics, remarked that in the Country “there is church-state separation, but full cooperation. Politics needs the church, but the church needs politics to bring about the development of society”.