Vatican - "Synodality path is path God expects from Church of third millennium". Fr Sala explains fruits of Synod on young people

31 October 2018

(ANS - Vatican City) - After the important service rendered as Special Secretary of the Synod of Bishops on young people, Fr Rossano Sala, SDB, now helps us to better understand the Final Document produced by the Synod.

What vision of the young does the Final Document express?

The Final Document should not only be read, but carefully studied, because it is a map updated with precision and meticulousness. As a whole, it has a hopeful and positive vision of young people: it considers them capable of choices, of dreaming great things, inhabited by God's presence, which at times must be reawakened with a pastoral capable of meaningful and biting proposals. A vision that we could call "Salesian", in the sense that it has its roots in the anthropological optimism of St. Francis de Sales. The Final Document has this view: it does not hide the weaknesses of the young, but sees the presence and action of God in them.

What do you think is the most important fruit of the Synod?

The first chapter of the third part underscores the difference. Because it really goes to synodality, which concretely means: "Let's walk together with the young". It is not about making "a preferential option for young people", it would be too little! Rather it is a choice of synodality, in which the young, in an ecclesial whole that gathers every baptized person, are the protagonists. Nobody in the Church is a mere "recipient", we all have something to give and to receive.

Young people have been the key that has opened the doors of synodality in the Church! This is a great result, a novelty of the Spirit, which renders all things new.

In this sense we also speak of "missionary synodality": it is a new, profound and simple term. It affirms that the Church's mission must start from the relational quality of its members, including young people. Formidable is n.118 of the Final Document, with these two sentences: "The establishment of a synodal Church is the indispensable prerequisite for a new missionary impulse"; "The path of synodality is the path that God expects from the Church of the third millennium".

What significance does the choice of the Emmaus icon have as the guiding thread of the Final Document?

Emmaus has been indicated by most of the Synodal Fathers as a privileged reference for being a Church that is meaningful today for young people. The three parts of the Final Document refer to the three moments of the episode. Jesus who walks with them, listening to them gently and letting them express themselves from their confused heart; Jesus announces and breaks the bread, redirecting their lives; the disciples leave again and testify their encounter with Jesus: it is the history of the Church, of every community, of every person, of every young person.

The profound meaning of all this lies in a journey that we must do together with the young and with God, and Emmaus is therefore another image of synodality.

The second part of the interview with Fr Sala will be published on ANS in forthcoming days.

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