RMG – “Youth ministry 2. Around the living fire of the Synod. Educate again to the good life of the Gospel”

03 September 2020

(ANS - Rome) – Elledici has just released the book “Pastorale giovanile 2. Intorno al fuoco vivo del Sinodo. Educare ancora alla vita buona del Vangelo - Youth Ministry 2. Around the living fire of the Synod. Educating again to the good life of the Gospel”, by Fr Rossano Sala, SDB, former Special Secretary at the Synod on Youth. The text ideally places the reader around the fire generated by the synodal process in the universal Church and boasts the invitation to read none other than Pope Francis.

"I really liked the image of this process as a fire that slowly broke out. It recalls the great desire of the Lord: 'I came to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already set ablaze!' (Lk 12:49), writes the Pontiff in the invitation to read the book."

He then continues: “The text you have in your hands is truly interesting and appropriate for this time… To light a fire that lasts over time, straw is not enough, but well-seasoned wood is needed. Snacks full of preservatives are not enough to grow, but you need, instead, healthy and nutritious food. So, too, thought needs solidity, especially in this very liquid time, where everything passes with extreme ease and superficiality. I think that Don Bosco will be happy with this work, which will certainly help many to enter the spirit of the Synod on young people and to orient themselves in a rapidly changing world.”

As the title suggests, the text does not start from scratch, but rests on solid foundations. On the one hand, it is a continuation of the previous book by the same author “Pastorale giovanile 1. Evangelizzazione ed educazione dei giovani. Un percorso teorico-pratico - Youth ministry 1. Evangelization and education of young people. A theoretical-practical path” (LAS, Rome 2017), which has already had three reprints and which laid the foundations to ponder upon the practice of Youth Ministry in a serious way, rooted as it is in solid theoretical foundations.

On the other hand, it also presents a clear novelty, namely the long and complex synodal process. “Certainly the synodal path undertaken in October 2016 by the theme 'Young people, faith and vocational discernment' - and relaunched by the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Christus vivit, on 25 March 2019 - was the most interesting thing that happened in recent years in the world of youth ministry. The universal Church has experienced an exciting journey, which we hope will flourish more and more and bear abundant fruit in the coming years,” says Fr Sala.

The book - also accompanied with an intervention by Fr Giacomo Costa, SJ, who was Secretary of the Synod of Youth together with Fr Sala - is made up of 32 contributions divided into five significant "constellations":

- Anthropology, theology and pastoral care;

- Accompaniment, proclamation and vocational animation;

- Youth, Church and Synod;

- Education, school and university;

- Don Bosco, family and oratory.

At the end of the decade that the Italian Episcopal Conference has dedicated to the theme "Educating to the good life of the Gospel" (2010-2020), this text aims to keep alive the educational and pastoral commitment of the Church in favor of all young people, no one excluded.

InfoANS

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