Vatican City, Feb 16, 2018 / 11:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Ahead of the pre-synod meeting set to take place next month, several young participants voiced excitement to meet with peers from all over the world to exchange ideas and talk about life’s major questions.
“This is a step the Church is making to listen to all youth,” said Stella Marilene Nishimwe, a participant in the pre-synod gathering. “It will give us an opportunity to say everything that we think. This is an opportunity that we must really take.”
A young Burundi woman living in Italy, Nishimwe told journalists that she believes the March gathering is “something that God wants from the Church, to do something new for all the youth of the world.”
“Because youth from all over the world, whether they are Catholics or from other religions, we have the same questions,” she said, adding that she thinks it is important that the Church wants to walk with youth “in this world with so much pain, with so many questions that don’t have answers.”
She said that what she mainly wants to share is the experience of “the life that we live.” Namely, “we want to find happiness, like everyone in the world, we want to live in unity, we want to feel at home in all parts of the world. We want to really find a path together…in this synod, I really want this.”
Nishimwe was one of four panelists at a Feb. 16 news conference on the upcoming pre-synod meeting, which will be held March 19-24 in Rome with some 300 youth from various backgrounds and countries throughout the world.
The event is a precursor to the October Synod of Bishops on “Faith, Young People and the Discernment of Vocation,” and will include youth in different states of life and from different vocations. Priests, seminarians and consecrated persons will also participate, as well as non-Catholics.
Special attention will also be given to youth from both global and existential “peripheries,” including people with disabilities, and some who have struggled with drug use or who have been in prison.
At the end of the gathering, notes of the various discussions will be gathered into one comprehensive concluding document, which will be presented to Pope Francis and used as part of the “Instrumentum Laboris,” or “working document,” of the October synod.
Alongside Nishimwe at the news conference were Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops; Bishop Fabio Fabene, the synod dicastery’s undersecretary; and Italian youth Filippo Passantino.
In comments to journalists, Passantino said participants are expecting to hear “an echo of their requests, of their needs, of their proposals” in the meeting, not only in the synod hall, “but also on social media, so that social media can become [a] great and luminous reflection to shine on their problems.”
Social media will also play a key role in the pre-synod gathering, which is being promoted on various platforms such as Facebook and Twitter with 15 special hashtags.
Passantino, who has helped to promote the event on social media, said many young people have shared their experiences, and that so far, most of the testimonies and questions posted have been related to problems such as finding work and building meaningful relationships in an increasingly superficial world.
He stressed the importance of youth being able to listen to one another and share their experiences, saying that “we will be listened to, but we must and we want to listen to all those situations of difficulty.”
The pre-synod meeting will kick off Monday, March 19, with an audience with Pope Francis, marking the 5th anniversary of the start of his papal ministry. True to form, Francis during the audience will take questions from young people from all five continents.
In the afternoon, participants will be divided into language groups, which throughout the week will discuss different themes outlined in the preparatory document for the synod, which was released Jan. 13, 2017.
Each session will include five questions to help guide discussion. The questions will focus on various topics, such as the search for meaning, technology, vocational discernment, politics and volunteer work.
Entertainment and moments of prayer will also be included. On Friday, April 23, participants will pray the Way of the Cross while walking to the Roman catacombs of San Callisto. On Saturday, they will spend the morning at the Pontifical Villa in Castel Gandolfo and in the evening will have a celebration with youth from the Diocese of Albano.
The event will conclude with Palm Sunday Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square, which also marks the diocesan celebration of World Youth Day, this year dedicated to the theme: “Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God.”
Participants in the gathering were selected by local bishops conferences for both the Roman and Eastern rites, and for those involved in movements, associations and ecclesial movements. Students at Catholic schools and universities will also attend.
In comments to journalists, Cardinal Baldisseri said the pre-synod gathering is not “an isolated event,” but is rather “a phase on the journey of preparation for the Synod of Bishops in October.”
The first step was the questionnaire that was sent out to bishops’ conferences worldwide, and which was also posted online in order to make it more accessible to young people. It was released in June 2017 for people ages 16 to 29, of all faiths and backgrounds, asking about lives, attitudes and concerns about the world.
According to Baldisseri, some 221,000 youth participated, with the majority being in the younger age bracket. Europe was the continent most highly represented, with Central and South America coming in second, and Africa in third.
The answers to the questionnaire will be one of four key ingredients in the October synod, he said, with the other three being the website for the questionnaire and social media accounts where youth can leave testimonies and answer questions; a September 2017 seminar on youth that took place in Rome; and the final document of the pre-synod meeting.
The pre-synod gathering will be “very, very important for the synod,” Baldisseri said. It aims to ensure that young people are heard and understood, so that the synod is not just an event “about” youth, but “with” them.
The meeting will seek to define specific pastoral projects and outreach plans. Parents, educators and priests will also be present to listen to what the youth are saying and be better equipped to address the problems and situations they encounter.
An exchange of cultural experiences and different religious backgrounds will also be encouraged.
In order to help young people unable to participate in the Rome gathering to have a voice in the discussion, special Facebook groups have been created based on language, which Bishop Baldisseri said will allow those not present to follow the discussion and interact with their peers from around the world.
Links to all social media pages, as well as the hashtags that will be used, can be found on the synod website: www.synod2018.va
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As established by Christ, let’s do away with His call to action for evangelization.
Why, if the Church does not represent truth by way of the Deposit of Faith, then let’s form ‘moral’ people without an objective reference.
And continue to let China be ‘China’…body counts notwithstanding.
What has Francis wrought? A Christ-less Church. Maybe we ought to just concede and now call ourselves “unitarian-universalist” or “The Society of Ethical Culture.”
Good one. Following the trajectory of Fancis’ logic, both “evil” proselytizing (evangelization that accompliches its purpose) and evangelizing can be done away with since all future synods will enable all three Persons of the Trinity to permanenty settle into their well-earned retirement since the synods will now run the universe.
It will not be long before we have a CCP appointed prelate elevated to Pope. Francis is doing his best to bring it about.
Go forth and make disciples of all nations. Does he believe this?
That would be rigid or something.
The bishop is correct. Our mission is to bear witness to the Gospel while trusting that the Lord will help with the rest.
Which Gospel? The Lord’s or the CCP’s.
Does he even know what the actual Gospel is because if memory serves me right Jesus was quite clear that we must make disciples of all nations and that includes communist countries, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
This bishop/deludes himself
Considering he’s a cardinal-elect who was approved by atheists and the CCP – and that he has their blessing to do their bidding at the upcoming Synod Synoodle thing – I suppose he could have done worse. But, yes, that’s praising with faint damnation. He’s no Cardinal Joseph Zen by the remotest stretch of the imagination.
Will no one free us from these vexatious Bishops?
Francis’ reign of error continues unabated.
“without the agenda of turning them into Catholics”
Maybe we should have the agenda of turning this guy into a Catholic.
What? I had to read some of this twice. There is a huge difference between hammering people with dogma, striking fear in their hearts if they reject a “force feed” and sharing with joy the Truth in Love. Rightful evangelization declares the gift of Faith, the conveyance of Hope (eternal life with God, and the assurance of unconditional Love that embodies perfect justice and Divine Mercy. Catholicism is a fusion of all three and necessarily points to Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. Why would we hide our (the) lamp, or worse, deny there is one? Come Holy Spirit!
“Go forth and make acquaintances of all nations.”
An idiot with a red zucchetto is still an idiot.
You hit that right on the head.
But let’s not forget who put the red zuchetto on this idiot.
As a retired Pastor, our efforts to reach people groups for Jesus as the only true on God and Creator Savior of the Universe should be to preach Jesus and not some denominational citation. Jesus is not interested in greeting Methodists, Anglicans but born again Christians of all races, colors and faith in Him. Churches since the Reformation should have learned that.
Jesus did not establish denominations. He established one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Read the history of Christianity beginning with the earliest accounts, the Church Fathers. The church founded by the apostles was not Protestant.
What happened in the 16th century was not a reformation but a revolution and a deformation. Had Luther not been terribly proud he would have been a force for good. But instead, hubris got in the way.
John Henry Newman was so right: to be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.
And while you may eschew denominations, it all amounts to yourselves being the authority. Not the Bible. No, you are the authority as far as you are concerned. One could say that you are your own Pope.
And as we have free will, you are free to do that.
Do study the history of Christianity beyond the nailing of the 95 thesis all the way back to the 1st century.
Words like “Reformation”, “counter reformation” etc are vestature adopted by a desire to justify differences and the backlash from the establishment. Jesus was radical. He offered freedom to worship His Father without the mill-stone of heritage.
It could be said that the human condition, itself, is in a dynamic state of evolution. Within generations we see changes in attitudes and values. Jesus’ apostles had to iron out individual differences in opinions and interpretations to lay the foundations of the Church. When Thomas refused to believe, he was not chastised by Jesus, but, was offered a reason to believe. Today (unfortunately) there is no one Catholic and Apostolic Church. I could go further than that and say,”Thank God”.
Therefore, I believe that it is not hubris that divides us. But, a genuine desire to understand and worship God. We need to worship Him through a community – with a deep-seated personal devotion.
Christ established a church. And that aint the ever increasing number of denominstions and it aint your version either.
Read scripture and study history.
When people talk about Jesus they need to remember that He came to institute a New and Everlasting Covenant upon which the Catholic Church is founded. In the early years of the Church there was a need to establish the relationship between the Old and New Covenants, which started at the Council of Jerusalem. The coming of Jesus and His New and Everlasting Covenant were predicted in the Old Testament. The New Testament contains warnings to hold fast to the faith.
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To me the Protestant Revolt/Reformation resembles the division of King Solomon’s kingdom because of his faithlessness in caving into his foreign wives. Martin Luther’s role was like that of Jeroboam, who was allowed to divide the kingdom to punish King Solomon for his worldly faithlessness. At the time of the Protestant Revolt/Reformation the Church hierarchy had fallen into worldly faithlessness similar to that of King Solomon when his heart was turned from God by his foreign wives.
Catholic bishops are obliged to teach the Catholic faith and make disciples of all nations. Reading between the lines, it should be obvious what a “code” message or “showing of true colors” is happening here.
“Reading between the lines”, I see a lot of blank space. Each of us exercises basic freedom to read “codes’ and “colours” where others may see nothing. God bless those with eyes to see!
But, when preceded by the desire to see all things as God sees them, we may unearth the valuable gem.
One can understand the distinction of proselytism; yet evangelization is about the love of God, good will, but its spiritual force is the preaching of the Good News for the salvation of souls, and ultimately the love of God as expressed in the Catholic Faith, as Christ founded. This is freedom. Not “restrictive.”