Thus the youth and Europe

Rome, St. Peter’s Square Palm Sunday, March 31st 1985. Over 20 thousand young people convened on the occasion of the International Youth Day. On that day John Paul II dedicated to “the young men and women in the world” the Apostolic Letter “Dilecti Amici”. The Pontiff announced the establishment of the World Youth Day during the allocution to the College of Cardinals and Roman Curia on 20 December 1885: “”The Lord blessed that meeting (31 March 1985, ed.’s note) in an extraordinary way to the extent that a World Youth Day was established for forthcoming years to be celebrated on Palm Sunday together with the useful assistance of the Council for the Laity”. In 2004, John Paul II wrote in “Crossing the threshold of hope”: “No one invented the World Youth Days. It was the young people themselves who created them . It is not true that the Pope brings the young from one end to the world to the other. It is they who bring him”. In this long pilgrimage the WYD crossed many Countries and cities. Of the 25 editions held until today, 10 were celebrated at international level, half of which in Europe, in Santiago de Compostela (Spain) in 1989, in Czestochowa (Poland) in 1991, in Paris (France) in 1997, Rome (Italy) in the year 2000, Cologne (Germany) in 2005, awaiting Madrid (Spain) in 2011… With the coordinator of the Youth department of the Pontifical Council for the Laity father Eric Jacquinet we addressed the value and the meaning of the WYD for European youth and for the secularized Old Continent.After the trip to Australia the WYD will return to Europe, Madrid, in 2011. What is the meaning of this return to the secularized Old Continent? “Secularized but longing for spirituality. I perceive the youth’s yearning to live in the Church also within the larger framework of a secularized reality such as Europe’s. This is evident in Spain, where the two things go together. For Spain it will be very important to stage the WYD. Cardinal Rouco Varela is convinced of the youth’s yearning for spirituality. Last week, a youth meeting in Paray Le Monial, France, attended by over 1500 young people, confirmed this belief”.Can the WYD respond to this yearning? “I notice that the youth, even those whom I meet in the St. Lorenzo centre in Rome, have a longing for spirituality that is often conveyed with the desire to pray. Eucharistic adoration is widely practiced, many young people have been gathering in silence and retreat in the Centre during the Lenten period, away from the noise of the world. However, there is another yearning that is no less important…”.Which is…?“Intellectual learning, which I believe stems from the distance perceived between what they study in school and what they hear in the Church, from the Pope. They seek intellectual coherence and I believe that as relates to the preparation to prayer and the cultural understanding of their faith, the meditation and teaching panels of the WYD can provide an answer, along with the bishops’ and the Pope’s catecheses during the days of the WYD”.Thus secularization failed to sever all Christian roots of European youth? “Indeed. Although it is worthwhile recalling that we are referring to those young people that are near the Church, and who take part in Church life. They may not be too many of them, but their desire is great, and for this reason they are the primary missionaries of their peers. I believe that the desire of recovering Christian culture is experienced by many. When John Paul II died, I saw thousands of young people come to Rome from all the corners of the world to bid him their last farewell. It is a clear sign of the fact that they had grown with the person, with the teachings and example of the Polish Pontiff. This did not change with Benedict XVI, which shows that the youth aren’t attracted by individual fame, rather, their profound desire extends beyond their bond with the Papal figure”.