2019 will be the Year of Young People in the Philippines

The official announcement reached us from the Episcopal Conference a few days ago: 2019 will be the Year of Youth in The Philippines and the bishops have described this initiative as part of the “nine-year journey for New Evangelisation” in preparation for the 500^th Anniversary of the arrival of the Christian faith in The Philippines (1521-2021).

The Year 2019, said the Archbishop of Cebu, José Palma, “is dedicated to young people who are the future but also the present of the Church.  With their active participation in society and in the life of the Church, they inspire all of us for evangelisation and social transformation”, he remarked.

In the process of preparing the Jubilee Celebrations of 2021, the first years were dedicated to the “integral formation of the faith” (2013), to the laity (2014), to the poor (2015), to the Eucharist and the family (2016) and to the parish as communion of community (2017). 2018 was dedicated to the clergy and to consecrated persons while, after the Year of Youth (2019), the last two years will be dedicated to ecumenism and interreligious dialogue (2020) and to  missio ad gentes (2021).