{"id":306020,"date":"2018-03-30T07:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T05:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/we-want-a-church-that-welcomes-us-a-church-we-can-believe-in\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:36:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:36:47","slug":"we-want-a-church-that-welcomes-us-a-church-we-can-believe-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/we-want-a-church-that-welcomes-us-a-church-we-can-believe-in\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe want a Church that welcomes us – a Church we can believe in.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Young people want to find \u201cpeace, love, trust, equality, freedom and justice\u201d in the Church.\u00a0 They also search for security, the capacity to listen, consideration, readiness to welcome the contribution of others.\u00a0 These are young people from every corner of the globe, belonging to different faiths, having different beliefs, coming from different social, economic and cultural backgrounds.\u00a0 Even young people who \u201cdo not follow traditional religions or say they are religious\u201d but who are \u201copen to spirituality\u201d and want to work for others and for the common good are looking for a guide to provide direction and meaning in life. The young people themselves shared these ideas at a meeting that took place in Rome from March 19th -24th<\/sup>:\u00a0 this meeting was a preparation for the XV Ordinary Synod of Bishops on \u201cYoung people, the faith and vocational discernment\u201d <\/em>that will take place in October 2018. It was Pope Francis himself who wanted this Synod.\u00a0 The 300 young people present for the preparatory meeting and another 15 thousand linked up by web told the Church \u2013\u00a0 gathered to listen in this way for the first time ever\u00a0 \u2013 all about their hopes and challenges and what they would like to find in those who are God\u2019s ministers.\u00a0 They also spoke of what they are looking for in society as a whole. They shared their experiences and offered their suggestions to help ensure that the message of the gospel reaches an increasing number of young people, that it is expressed in the right way and with an attitude that is humble and open to dialogue. At the invitation of Pope Francis who asked the young people to speak openly and to be \u201ccheeky\u201d enough to ask difficult questions, they said very clearly that they wanted \u201cattractive role models who are genuine and who do what they say\u201d, \u201creal witnesses who speak the gospel with their lives\u201d, \u201cmen and women who can speak with passion about their faith and their relationship with Jesus and encourage others to draw close to him.\u201d\u00a0 They want the Church to be welcoming, merciful, humble, human, inclusive, coherent, believable, \u201cable to empathise with all the young people in the world\u201d and show \u201ctenderness\u201d towards people to \u201cdon\u2019t believe in following certain standards.\u201d\u00a0 They are looking for \u201crational, critical responses to complex questions\u201d such as sexuality, \u201caddiction, marital and family breakdown\u201d and to \u201cthe big social problems such as organised crime, human trafficking, violence, corruption, exploitation, murder of women and destruction of the natural environment.\u201d They admit to not having a single, unified vision about complex issues such as migration and welcoming refugees even though there is \u201ca universal duty to care for the dignity of every human being.\u201d\u00a0 They also feel that there is little agreement among young people – neither within the Church nor in the broader world \u2013 about controversial issues such as \u201ccontraception, abortion, homosexuality, living together, marriage and even how the priesthood is understood.\u201d\u00a0 Nonetheless, even the young people who do not share in the Church\u2019s teaching still \u201cwant to be part of it.\u201d Furthermore, they are shocked by the current \u201cpolitical, social and economic instability\u201d and ask the Church to be \u201csolid and with a preference for those who are struggling on the margins of society.\u201d\u00a0 They want a sure guide because \u201csimple answers are not enough.\u201d\u00a0 They also expect the Church to acknowledge the mistakes it has made, all that it has failed to do and even its most painful wounds.\u00a0 This is the only way they can believe and trust the Church.   Young people ask to be more involved in decision making, to be given responsibility and leadership roles in a broader context such as parish groups.\u00a0 They also feel that women should be involved more, that there should be more possibility for them to use their talents.\u00a0 They want the Church to be present and to search for them in the social and virtual worlds that they inhabit \u2013 in the bar, on the sports field and in social media.\u00a0 They also want to know more about the sacraments and to attend both large-scale events such as the World Youth Day as well as small ones in the diocese and parish.\u00a0 They want to be included, to be part of a group \u2013 \u201ceven a small local group where we can ask questions and share our Christian life is so important in nurturing and preserving our faith.\u201d In conclusion, they are young people looking for their vocation in the world and for the meaning of life. \u00a0They care for and cultivate their own spirituality \u2013 and almost always \u2013 see the Church as a great partner.\u00a0 Now it is up to the Church, as it has said itself, to take notice of what they are saying.\u00a0 The next appointment is in October at the Synod Assembly but, in the meantime, the Pope has said, \u201cYou will be taken seriously.\u201d <\/p>\n

Claudia Di Lorenzi<\/strong><\/p>\n

Document<\/strong><\/a>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In preparation for the October Synod, young people from all over the world give the Pope and bishops a document that expresses their ideas about the Church and what they hope to receive from it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}