The plenary assembly of the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops with 300 participants from all over the world and from different realities; the meditations on the Way of the Cross on Good Friday; the 50th anniversary of the world meeting of university students in Rome for Holy Week: young people are at the center of a renewed ecclesial dynamism. In the meantime, Pope Francis has made official his participation in the World Meeting of Families in Dublin.
TEXT - Giovanni Tridente, Rome
Young people are not stupid, and you can't make them happy with a weight on their backs. If you try to deceive them, or even if you just try to please them, they will notice. Instead, the right approach is to listen to them, to let yourself be challenged by them. In these few expressions, which summarize a much broader background, are sculpted the more realistic intentions that the Pope has given to the bishops for the next Synod on young people, which has been convened for October.
The occasion was provided by the pre-synodal meeting convened by the Secretariat of the Synod in the week preceding Palm Sunday, which brought together in Rome 300 young people from all over the world - chosen by the bishops' conferences, seminaries, houses of formation, members of associations and movements, representatives of schools, etc. - to discuss the theme of the Synod. universities, artists, politicians, economists, sportsmen, Christians, people of other religions and non-believers - precisely to make the "dress rehearsal" of the event.
Young people must be taken seriously, the Pope said in front of that audience of young people, but speaking in substance to the whole Church and to the future Synod Fathers; they must be helped to emerge from marginalization in public life; their "culture" and what they are building must be listened to.
