CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Youth pastoral ministry in Europe: renewed action The Church is called to promote a renewed major role of young people from a missionary perspective; young people should become the agents for the evangelisation of their peers, bearing witness to the joy of the Gospel. It is one of the key-messages that emerge from the 4th European Congress on youth pastoral ministry held in Rome December 11-13, to the presence of 130 participants from 32 Countries. The initiative was promoted by the Pontifical Council for the laity in cooperation with the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE). In a message to participants Pope Francis said: “Those of you who work in the field of youth pastoral ministry, carry out valuable work for the Church. The young need this service: both adults and other young people of mature faith who accompany them on their path, helping them to find the road that leads to Christ. This pastoral ministry consists of walking with them, accompanying them personally in the complex and at times difficult contexts in which they are immersed”. Taking the floor, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, CCEE vice president, spoke of the challenges of relativism and secularization that lead mankind to “act as if God did not exist, to decide as if the poor did not exist, to dream as if others did not exist “. “Faced with feelings of confusion, especially in our continent – added the cardinal -, there is a great need and perhaps a more or less conscious desire of a joyful message of hope and confidence”. The hope, conveyed by Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, is “that along the roads of Europe young people may never feel alone: may they have reliable points of reference and hope for the future”. “Our young people – he continued – belong to a wounded humanity, where all educational realms, notably the most important, the family, are undergoing major difficulties. They are experiencing serious identity problems, and strive to take decisions. They need to be accompanied with respect, dedication and patience in the difficult roads that they undertake in our times”. Hence the commitment, renewed in the light of the current situation, is that “of bringing young people towards a mature faith in the quest for their own vocation and to a personal friendship with Jesus”: it is a fundamental task of youth pastoral ministry that today is called to convey renewed hope to a disappointed generation, that lives with the only certainty that everything is temporary. In Rome it was remembered that the rediscovery of the missionary dimension of young people, who bear witness to the joy of the Gospel, is critical to the implementation of an outgoing Church, capable of anticipating the deep expectations of every young person in the continent. Spain: dioceses of Getafe towards the “Great mission” Monsignor Joaquín María López de Andújar, bishop of Getafe, presented the initiatives promoted by the diocese for the Year of Charity, that represents the last step in preparation of the diocesan “Great Mission” that will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Spanish diocese (1991-2016). “The Great mission – the prelate explained – is the Church’s answer to the crisis in our societies. Economic crisis and, even more, a crisis in humanity, a crisis in hope. For this, we intend to bring to everyone the joy of faith, of Christian life”. The bishop underlined that the Church is sensitive to everything that is happening in world and that it is necessary to bring the hope of Christ where there is suffering: in hospitals, in prisons – in the diocese there are three penal institutions with a prison population of 4.000 convicts – or in soup kitchens, where hundreds of families are given daily meals. To bring everyone the Good News, from March 6-8 the “Cerro de los Ángeles” (Angels’ Hill), in Getafe, will host the new evangelization Congress “Come and you shall meet him”, intended to bring together thousands of people, a major event of the Year of Charity. The preparatory congress of the Great Mission will enjoy the contribution of panel lectures by experts in the new evangelization such as Fr José María Gil Tamayo, General Secretary of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference. The Year of Charity features also an ambitious spiritual formation program that will be implemented across 126 parishes in the diocese and within its congregations. Parishes will promote an intense evangelizing mission addressed to practising Catholics in order to renew their missionary efforts as well as to so-called ‘distant’ Catholics that will be presented with a set of itineraries such as beauty, the common quest for truth, the exercise of charity and the responsible care for the Creation.
