Having to do with young people who “grow up without having contacts with the Christian faith” is a challenge for the Belgian Church, which is being urged to “live the Gospel in a more authentic way”. The fact that young people in Belgium have “no knowledge” of the Gospel does not mean stress the bishops that they feel an aversion towards it: that’s why “it is indispensable that young people find communities in which they can grow in a continuous and progressive manner in the Christian life-style”. “Living” parishes, new movements, specific groups for young believers, Bible groups, associations for charitable work or social involvement: these, according to the bishops, are the main experiences that the Church must offer to the young, not forgetting that a “fundamental way” of evangelization remain the World Youth Days, the Taizé meetings, the pilgrimages…The “dialogue between Christianity and modernity” is, furthermore, the “real challenge for the transmission of the faith to the new generations”: in a world dominated by the “autonomy of the individual”, in which “the period of youth is indefinitely prolonged” and characterized by the lack “of secure points of reference and values”, adults are called to offer to the young the image of “a welcoming Church”, endowed with “a strong identity” but also capable of “respecting youth as they are”, and enabling them to open themselves to the presence of God in the midst of their experience of life”. Young people today a “minority” of pilgrims of the faith , in the view of the bishops of Belgium, have a need for “masters” who “speak out”, persons who live the Gospel in a humble but enthusiastic and decided manner” and “real communities, where the Christian life is tangible and characterized by solidarity and friendship”.
