26 April" "
“We have a need to feel your presence, your fatherhood. We understand that you have many commitments, but when we meet each other we understand each other better”. That’s the plea made to the bishops by Katerina Kubickovà, youth delegate of the Czech Republic at the 10th Symposium of European bishops recently held in Rome on the theme: “Youth of Europe in the process of change. Laboratory of the faith”. “More than proclamation and preaching said Katerina during the work of the Anglo-Italian language group the young want witness. When one’s in the presence of true witnesses, the wish arises to know what inspires them”. This position is shared by the Romanian delegate, Oana-Simona Tuduce representing the international Forum of Catholic Action: “We young people, especially in the West, think we have everything we want from life. But what is lacking is the affection that ought to come from the family, which is now too often distracted and its attention preoccupied by work . Never before have the young had so deep a need to have someone close to them and to find a home in the Church”. “The void inside our youth needs to be filled with a new evangelization, by being at their side, and avoiding dialogue being transformed into a monologue”: that’s the prescription of the bishop of Livorno, Msgr. Diego Coletti, and the Maltese bishop Joseph Mercieca, who added: “Whoever evangelizes must believe, have courage and faith in the grace of God who also reveals himself in our weaknesses as priests and pastors. For young people are attracted not by appearances but by great ideals. The Pope is so much loved by the young because he seeks them out and wants to be together with them”. The need to find “places of encounter with the young to experience the truth of the Gospel and assume it as a model” was stressed by Fr. Michael Kühn, who heads the youth pastoral office of the German Episcopal Conference. “We need to give time to the young to rediscover Christianity as a resource and as a richness – he declared -. If Christianity is presented as an enriching ‘model of life’ the young will not be slow to follow it”.
