Five years of Christus Vivit

This year, the Church celebrates the five-year anniversary of the publication of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Christus Vivit. On the 25^th of March 2019 in fact, Pope Francis signed in the Holy House of Loreto the "letter" to young people, which sealed the work of the Synod of Bishops on Youth held in the Vatican in October 2018, and which was preceded for the first time by the pre-Synod involving the participation of young people from around the world, as well as by reflections made in the local Churches together with representatives of the younger generations.

Now, on the 5th anniversary of Christus Vivit, the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life is accompanying the group of young communicators participating in the Dicastery for Communication's project "Faith Communication in the Digital World", in their design and production of a social campaign for the official Facebook and Instagram accounts of World Youth Day (WYD).

The campaign will start on Sunday the 25^th of February, and end on the 25^th of April, with an aim to bring young people from all over the world together in a twelve-week experience to share the meaning and spirit of Christus Vivit for today’s life, as well as the fruits of the last WYD Lisbon 2023.

Starting from the keyword "alive", and through inspirational videos, the campaign calls to action and engagement, because, the wish of the participants in the project "Faith Communication in the Digital World" is that this initiative - with the active contribution of young people who have participated in WYD, their animators and youth pastoral ministers - may keep alive the experience of World Youth Day also in the digital space, and make alive the Holy Father's invitation: " You are the now of God, and he wants you to bear fruit " (ChV 178).  

This project, available in many languages, can also be adopted by various realities of the local Churches that wish to transmit a spiritual reflection that reaches young people through social networks.

***

The Faith Communication in the Digital World project was established by the Dicastery for Communication and selects young communicators who, through a series of online and in-person meetings and workshops, work to acquire valuable in-depth skills in digital communication from the perspective of spiritual formation, and, to contribute their talents and experience to the projects of a number of Vatican bodies.

***

Since WYD Madrid in 2011, the official social accounts of World Youth Day have been opened. To date, there are more than 2 million followers of the Facebook page in English, and hundreds of thousands of followers of the other 20 pages in different languages of the world (including Arabic, Chinese, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian...). The accounts, including Instagram and X (@wyd_en), are managed and updated by the Local Organising Committees that, from one WYD to the next, rely on groups of young volunteers who feed them with ideas and content.