Year of Mercy
Also 127 adolescents from Belgium, seriously hit by devastating terror attacks that caused dozen of deaths only recently, will pass through St. Peter’s Holy Door during the Jubilee of Young Boys and Girls (April 22-25). Thirty of these youths live in Molenbeek, the neighbourhood in Brussels that gained a reputation in the media as the hotbed of jihadi fighters. The will challenge fear – including the fear to fly – to listen to Pope Francis, to share an experience of faith with 70 thousand peers and return home with a mandate as “ambassadors of friendship and peace.” Standing under their national flag, they will repeat with Francis: “we cannot surrender to hatred and terror.”
There will also be thirty young people from the Molenbeek district in Brussels, amid the 127 adolescents from Belgium taking part in the Jubilee of Young Boys and Girls to be held in Rome April 22 to 25 on the theme “Merciful like the Father.” It’s a significant, desired presence to the point of “overcoming the fear of flying. In fact, many of these young people will be travelling by plane for the very first time, to come to Rome. None of them, said the coordinator of the group, Sister Claire Jonard – seemed to be worried about the risk of terrorist attacks, despite their first-hand experience following the Brussels massacre” and media reports portraying Molenbeek, an area with a high number of Islamic migrants, as a hotbed of jihadists.
“They faced their fears and decided to come to Rome as artisans and ambassadors of peace.”
Wrapped in Belgium’s national flag. “We decided to take part in the Jubilee after having read the Pope’s invitation”, said the religious, recalling the message of Pope Francis for the Jubilee of Mercy of Young Boys and Girls. “I would like to invite you, one by one, calling you by name, as Jesus does each day… To be merciful means to grow in a love which is courageous, generous and real. It means to grow physically and spiritually. You are preparing to be Christians capable of making courageous choices and decisions, in order to build daily, even through little things, a world of peace.” “These words have entered the hearts of Belgian youths even though – pointed out Sister Jonard – it’s hard for them to live and bear witness to the faith in a secularised society like the one in our Country. We have started forming small groups of three-four adolescents in parishes. A consistent group of young people, thirty of them, come from the parish church of the Molenbeek district, much talked about in newspapers and television on the occasion of the attacks in Brussels. I am very pleased to participate in the Jubilee. They are the ones – remarked the religious – who every day live on the ground all the difficulties of dialogue and coexistence, but also the beauty of the fruits that it brings. We will be in St Peter’s Square together, wrapped in the Belgian flag. It will be a great honour for us to listen to the Pope. We feel we have a strong duty to share with the entire world what we experienced and we are still living through today. Young people are the true peace-builders for the future.”
With a mandate as ambassadors of peace. A short pilgrimage, “we will be arriving on Friday and will leave again on Sunday”, with a very busy agenda. “We will be following the full program of the event which we have prepared for carefully also because most of the youths are preparing for Confirmation. In the past days we have been accompanied by the prayer that our young people may return to their homes stronger in their faith by the religious experience of the Jubilee. Nothing for them counts more than friendship and faithfulness. May the encounter with Christ make them be His testimonies in schools, groups, families. May the friendship with Jesus help them create strong bonds with their peers. It’s the first Jubilee meeting of a Pope with adolescents”, added Sister Jonard. “It’s a difficult age marked by questions and by the need for answers. It’s a time, quoting once more the Pope’s words, of transformations, when everything seems possible and impossible at the same time. They will have the opportunity of bearing witness to their faith with greater conscience and strength. We will be leaving from Belgium in the full awareness that there is no giving in to words of hatred and terror that are increasingly heard. The Jubilee calls upon everyone to mercy and forgiveness– including young people -.
We wish to return from Rome after having challenged fear, with a mandate as ambassadors of friendship and peace for Belgium and for Europe.”
