Read this editorial from the November 5, 2018 issue of La Civilta Cattolica. This Rome-based journal has been considered the voice of the Vatican since 1850.
The Synod of Bishops dedicated to “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment” has ended.
One thing emerged clearly from the working sessions and the entire synodal process that began in January 2017: we must avoid speaking of the Church “and” the youth, for the youth are not an “object” as they might be considered for marketing purposes. To organize a Synod on young people without involving young people would be senseless.
What is the Spirit saying to the Church today through the young people and their seeking and their hopes, their fears and their questions that we sometimes struggle to understand? St. Paul VI had said it: “There is an intimate connection, dear young people, between your faith and your life. For it is in the dissatisfaction that torments you, in your criticism of society … that a ray of light shines” (December 2, 1970).
We all have much to learn from the untamable restlessness of the youth, both inside and outside the Church. The word “restless” resounds in the text of the final document (FD) eight times; with its synonyms it is one of the key words of the entire document.
The true challenge, then, is that of being with young people and accompanying them to help them find and share the right questions, the real, important ones, the fundamental ones, and pose them before a divided world, to the interior emptiness, and to their desire for a full and happy life. And so the Synod in its Letter to Young People asks them to become in turn “companions on the road with the fragile, the poor, those injured by life.” From here, then, the appeal to the youth to work at restoring to the Church that instinct of happiness and fullness that makes her open to the breath of the Spirit.
In a world where adults compete with the young – with their own children, if they have them! – the Synod spoke to us again of a humanity seeking fullness, a humanity that still humbly hopes in the promise of the future. The Church is a canoe, said a Samoan, one of the 36 young synodal auditors present. In a canoe, he explained, the elderly help choose the direction by interpreting the stars, while the young talk with them and row with power. For Francis, the young person is a prophet, but can truly prophesize only by listening to the dreams of those who go before them on the path of life.
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