Dicastery

Young People in Ecclesial Movements, Converted and Evangelizers

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  “Young people were at the origin of many ecclesial movements;” “the ecclesial movements” have a “long work experience working with the youth;” “the ecclesial movements actively involve young people in the evangelization,” and there is “a very close tie between the experience of faith and the vocational path.” These are some of the points underlined by the Cardinal Prefect Kevin Farrell in the speech he gave a few days ago at the Annual Meeting of the ecclesial movements and new communities held at the Dicastery.

Later, the Secretary Fr. Alexandre Awi Mello said in a speech addressed to the nearly 50 members present: “Today, we want to listen to you once again. Listening to one another enriches us all and makes us perceive better the action—always youthful, dynamic, and regenerating—of the Holy Spirit in the Church through the ecclesial movements and the new communities.”

Finally, the Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, spoke about the objectives, expectations, and perspectives of next October’s meeting: “The young people are urging for a renewal of the Church’s manner of being and acting, for a transformation that makes Her more agile, less structural, more dynamic, fearlessly able to face other cultures, other religions, and different types of society. A Church that is with the people, able to be present where the young are, where they live, and also in the places that are not ‘physical,’ for example in the world of the social media. A Church, therefore, capable of entering into dialogue also with the globalized and technological culture in which we find ourselves and adopting new languages to announce the Good News of always today in credible way. A concrete Church that helps them to find solutions to the problems that afflict them and accompany them discretely but effectively in the decisive choices for their lives. A Church—he said in conclusion—that it is also ready to learn from them and that it is not afraid of questioning Herself in order to find new roads that help Her to reach the hearts of the young, renouncing to fill their heads only with words that do not tell them anything and imposing prohibitions without giving any convincing explanations.”

21 June 2018