Cei Assembly and Synod
A “person-to-person” pastoral ministry, that gives answers and arouses questions, carried out by adults capable of being travelling companions and of “establishing a dialogue with young people’s dreams.” For Monsignor Pietro Maria Fragnelli, bishop of Trapani, President of the CEI Commission for the Family, Young People and Life, this is the thread linking the Italian bishops’ reflection to the path of preparation for the next Synod
In their recent Assembly Italian bishops addressed the issue of the presence of young people in our Catholic communities. What picture emerged? Unlike other themes, the theme of young people impassioned everyone. The dialogue between us bishops ranged from a strongly realistic approach, nearing resignation, acknowledging the distance of young people not only in physical terms but also – and especially – in cultural terms, to its other extreme marked by enthusiasm over the prospect of recovered dialogue with them, which entailed a new impetus in reconsidering the role not only of individuals – namely of priests, and educators –possessing the needed skills as educators, but also the institutional role of the Church before the inadequacy, and in some cases the absence, of other institutions marked by the presence of the young.
Which concrete proposals were made?
To create new forms and places of welcome, in addition to the traditional channels, which are generally considered unattractive by the young. To progress in the encounter with young people in their own environments and in the language they use, to learn from them, on the basis of the Preparatory Document of the Synod on young people, which states, at the end of the first chapter: “those who appear to be losers end up being agents of change.”
Furthermore, the bishops highlighted the importance of educational teams devoted to formation. To instil the faith, it is necessary to devote major efforts to the cultural formation of adults, in keeping with the present times. From this perspective young people are the final recipients of the work carried out by the Italian Church through the Pastoral Guidelines released over the past decade. In fact the challenge of education, rather than being a provocation, has become an invitation to optimise forces, to direct them with intelligence towards the service of language, literature, arts, understood as practices needing to be apprehended in order to be near the young. Along with the enhanced contribution of educators, there is a widespread demand to focus on the formation of the clergy, to accompany young people in their paths of growth. Great emphasis was given to the problems related to employment and to the role of volunteer work – themes already highlighted by the Pope – along with the request to reconsider the relationship with school and university environments, by promoting complementary educational figures that may help overcome cultural disorientation and create bridges extended towards various areas of society.
“Young people, the Faith and Vocational Discernment” : it is the theme of the 2018 Synod. What could be the contribution of youth ministry, at a time when – as stated in Evangelii gaudium – the impact of social transformations prevent educational proposals from delivering the expected fruits? During the General Assembly all the bishops highlighted the fact that rebuilding, and building anew, can occur only by starting with human relations.
It is a question of changing the educational model – closely linked to a specific local, spatial and temporal dimension – to the benefit of a completely different vision whereby the determining factors consist in significant relations, the ability to involve young people and to become their travel companions. This implies going from an approach based on providing constant answers to the ever-refined art of arousing questions.
Sociological studies, whose findings were addressed also in the dialogue among us bishops, show that contemporary youths are not ideologically closed to dialogue. In fact the realm of young people is open to being accompanied by the realm of adults. But the former demands that it take place on an equal standing, regardless of roles, and accepting to undertake the path leading to increased personalization in terms of the presence of young people in today’s world.
A person-to-person pastoral care? Yes, this is the major change of direction:
The human element of the Church to delve into the human element of the young
Coupled by the re-proposal of the truth of Christ as the bearer of exceptional fullness for the youths of today, those of yesterday, and those of tomorrow. In this way, the dialogue between the Church and young people is a mutually educational dialogue, for it prompts young people to come forth and helps adults to be freer.
Mobility – which should not be understood as an end in itself, but as something marked by a quest, by young people’s yearning to get involved to seek the meaning of their existence – and the act of listening, are two parallel roads leading to the creation of a new encounter between the Church and the young.
In a society that binds them to stereotypes and penalizes them on all fronts, including employment and having a family, can today’s young people find adults that meet their needs? If adults intend to have a determining role, they must be able to become the travel companions of the young. If they continue acting as mediators with a treasure of experience to be passed down, they will lose all appeal. That is why it’s extremely important to focus on the adults’ understanding of young people. A prime example is technology, which deludes them into identifying themselves with a sort of technological almightiness. But the latter is a “know-how” form of almightiness, which conceals strong fragilities and loneliness. Hence there is need for humble and visionary adults, capable of walking with them and
Dialoguing with the dreams of the young.
