Salt of the earth” “

Palm Sunday, 24 March, is, as it is every year, an occasion to celebrate Youth Day in each diocese. In preparation for this important Day, the Pope is meeting the youth of the diocese of Rome this afternoon, 21 March. The youth of the whole world are thus symbolically taking the road towards the 17th World Youth Day which will see them converge on Toronto in Canada from 18 to 28 July this year. “You are the salt of the earth … You are the light of the world”: that’s the theme chosen by John Paul II in his message for World Youth Day in Toronto. “Dear young people – the Pope writes in his message – do not be content with anything less than the highest ideals!”. We have tried to gauge how young people throughout Europe are responding to this invitation of the Pope. In the following pages we will present a series of testimonies and experiences of the European “under 35s”. “The young are the future of Europe” but they need to be given strong ideals in which they can believe, otherwise they risk losing their identity. So says Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, archbishop of Prague and up till last year president of the Council of the European Episcopal Conferences. “We need to begin with families – continues the archbishop – for they are the first to be called to give young people a goal to which they can aspire. The young have a need for a hope in which they can believe and guidance they can follow. Because young people are open to great ideals. They are seeking challenging objectives to which to devote their lives, but sometimes, finding themselves in a secularized world, they easily let themselves be seduced by consumerism and, in pursuing base dreams, lose their own identity, but more especially weaken this striving towards ideals that is an intrinsic part of them. The 10th Symposium of European Bishops (Rome, 24 – 28 April has chosen to place youth at the centre of its discussions this year, calling them “bearers of hope for the Church of the 21st century”. Is the Church therefore counting on the new generations because in this moment of her history she feels immobile and devoid of new alternatives? “I wouldn’t say immobile”, replies the archbishop. “It’s true that Vatican Council II represented an extraordinary reawakening for the Church, opening her up to the world and generating new prospects. During the forty years that have passed since then a great deal has been done, but what was prospected by the Council was not just an organizational process. It’s a long, vital and dynamic process that must grow. We must hope, because without hope we cannot live. That’s why we say: we are conscious of our weaknesses, but we are also conscious of the presence of the risen Christ in his Church”.