“The young are called to make constant choices that give direction to their lives; they express the desire to be heard, recognized, accompanied. Many find that their voice is not considered interesting or useful in social and ecclesial circles.” This is one of the conclusions made by the participants on the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2018.
The Catholic Church has focused her attention on youth in the last two years in the process known as “Synod on Youth, Faith and Vocational Discernment”, through a very participatory approach. The Synod has allowed Catholic bishops and other Church authorities to take an attitude of careful listening to young people, gathering their aspirations and dreams, in order to help them take life choices in different fields of their life. Young people have been involved and present at all stages of the Synod.
Don Bosco International and COMECE, in their capacity as religious actors in contact with the European Institutions and other stakeholders, intend to analyze this process from a socio-political perspective. How can youth, including young Catholics, respond to this call of engaging in a more challenging social and political environment?
Together with different participants in the Synod Assembly, young Catholic leaders, policy-makers and other active stakeholders in the field of youth, they will try to give continuity to the Synod of Youth in the heart of Europe.
The first moment of the appointment on Thursday 11 will be a dialogue between the President of COMECE, the archbishop of Luxembourg, Msgr. Jean-Claude Hollerich, the bishop of Ghent and President of Caritas Europe, the Salesian Msgr. Luc Van Looy, and Annelien Boone, a young Belgian who took part in the Synod.
In a second moment, they will reflect on “possible synergies between EU policies on young people and the Synod”, with speeches by Fabienne Metayer, Head of Youth Policy of the European Commission, Lukáš Pachta; assistant to MEP Michaela Sojdrova; Katharina Norpoth, President of the Bdkj, German Catholic Youth Federation.
Furthermore, some concrete examples of the socio-political commitment of young people will be presented.
"At the Synod Pope Francis said that rather than working for young people it is necessary to work with young people, to enable them to fully realize their talents and aspirations in their local community and to strengthen them at all levels of social, economic and political life," summarized the organizers.
If you want to join us, please register here until today, 9th April.
