The prime value” “

Following in the footsteps of the pilgrims of former days, almost 20,000 youngsters arrived in Santiago de Compostela to experience, from 5 to 8 August, the final days of the European Youth Pilgrimage, called to mark Santiago’s Holy Year. “Santiago is the common home where we anticipate this new Europe, whose prime value is that of life”, said Monsignor Antonio Cañizares Llovera , archbishop of Toledo, during the opening ceremony of the European Pilgrimage. Youngsters from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Germany, and even from Russia and the Ukraine, walked for days, some for weeks, along the ancient pilgrim ways traced by pilgrimages through the centuries. They followed a single motto, that of the Pilgrimage, “Witnesses of Christ for a Europe of hope”. The concluding days of the European Youth Pilgrimage were packed with prayer meetings and exchanges on Christian witness in Europe. Many issues were discussed, including the role of Catholic youth in the construction of the European home, dialogue with other cultures and religions, the values on which Europe rests, and the challenges faced by the various Catholic communities in Europe. THE SECRET. “This is the secret: following the love of Christ. The secret that is revealed to us once again in Santiago and that has been revealed to you, dear young people, during your Pilgrimage, and especially here in its Compostelan conclusion. If you have seen and contemplated Jesus in your heart and in your experience of the church during your pilgrimage, and once again expressed your full and joyous assent to the faith, by offering to it the love of your heart, at times uncertain and weak, but generous in intention and aspiration… then you have reached the Goal of your pilgrimage: you have obtained the best result that it is possible to achieve at Santiago de Compostela: the grace of conversion, a renewed faith, enthusiasm and joy for having discovered the love of God that vanquishes sin, and a vocation subservient to the supreme value to which we must aspire and try to realise in our pilgrimage through this world, holiness. Only those converted to the full ideal of the Christian life shall find their specific vocation in the Church. Only they shall be witnesses of hope in Europe”. (Cardinal Ruoco Varela, archbishop of Madrid) PRIVILEGED SPACE. “Europe is a privileged space of human hope, a place of communication in which, for the first time, peoples with very different living standards are united, and the privileged countries have the duty to welcome them and recognise their Christian roots. Europe must be distinguished by tolerance and the ethics of brotherhood. Globalization shall be what we want it to be: we can transform it from a savage contest without rules to a sum of countries united by solidarity. The Way of Santiago is like a European cultural itinerary: it is the sum of spiritual, religious and cultural values”. (Michel Camdessus, president of the Semaines sociales in France) ON THE PATH OF EVANGELIZATION. “We want young people to draw close to the Christian faith, but there’s strong tension throughout Europe today that is pushing the young and people in general towards a materialistic view of the world. The problem is compounded in Russia given the seventy years of persecution suffered by the Catholic faith. Yet it is possible to recover the young for the faith through the service of the churches, through the proclamation of the Gospel, and also through dialogue with all the Christian communities. For example in Russia the Catholic community is in the minority; the largest religious community is that of the Orthodox Church. The aim of the Orthodox, like that of the Catholic, community, is to evangelise, so we can help the evangelization of Russia also by working together with the Orthodox Church. Santiago de Compostela is an example. The challenge of evangelization is won also by dialoguing with the other Christian communities. I have had occasion to meet Catholics and also Orthodox and Protestants who pray together. This is important. Moments like the European Youth Pilgrimage are essential for continuing along the path of evangelization”. (Monsignor Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, archbishop of Moscow) THE SINGLE VOICE. “We would never have thought there were so many young people who share the same faith, who experience it in their lives, with joy every day. And we would never have imagined being given such a warm welcome, or being treated as brothers and sisters. As in World Youth Days, or in the youth meetings promoted by the Church, ever more frequent in recent years, at Santiago too the Babel of voices, of different languages, was replaced by a single voice, which all the young people present could understand and wanted to hear, the voice of the Gospel”. (Vera, age 22, student from Moscow).