San Lorenzo Center: Re-Opening Mass and Extraordinary Activities During the Synod of Bishops

“The San Lorenzo Center is a privileged place for youth initiatives. We want to start prayer groups, vigils, and activities, but we are also open to other youth initiatives. We invite the young people around the world to consider this center as their home,” says Fr. Cristiano Pinheiro C. Bede, International Assistant of the Shalom Catholic Community, to whom the Center’s coordination is entrusted.

The re-opening Mass at the Center will be celebrated by Card. Kevin Farrell on October 1^st, the liturgical feast day of Saint Therese of Lisieux, at 7:00 pm. On that day, the extraordinary initiatives related to the upcoming Synod of Bishops on “Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment” will also begin. Throughout the month of October, the Church of San Lorenzo in Piscibus will be open from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm for Eucharistic adoration, followed at 6:00 pm by Holy Mass. Several initiatives are planned for the weekends.

On October 13^th, there will be a vigil on the synodal dialogue: praise, adoration and dialogue “without filters” between the young people and the bishops on the theme “From: They are up to: because there are.” On October 20^th, a vigil with young people will be celebrated in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. On October 27^th, another synod vigil will be celebrated in the Center on the theme “Everything and right Now” Cristiano Pinheiro extends the invitation to all these events.

During the month of October, the Center will also welcome other initiatives by young people who are in Rome on the occasion of the Synod of Bishops.

The San Lorenzo International Youth Center was inaugurated on 13 March 1983, at Via Pfeiffer 24, near St. Peter’s Square. Inspired by St. John Paul II, who called it “a forge for the formation of true young Christians,” the Center has become a home for many young people who have come to Rome from different countries and continents. Opened in the year of the Extraordinary Jubilee of the Redemption, it has become a symbol of the Holy Father’s attention to the young and houses the Jubilee Cross, offered by the Pope to young people in 1984 and still considered the main symbol of the World Youth Days. For the last thirty years, the Emmanuel International Community has served the Center, animating and promoting different activities. This mission is now entrusted to the Shalom Community.