Don Riccardo Pincerato, head of the National Youth Pastoral Service of the CEI
«They still want to dream and hope, today’s young people. To change the world for the better. The Church offers them the space to say: “We can do it together”.
Don Riccardo Pincerato, CEI manager of the National Service for youth pastoral care, tells a world of boys and girls able to amaze, to commit themselves, to test themselves, to pray. “It is no coincidence that the places for proximity experiences, that is, for the voluntary activities that can be done during this event, have been exhausted almost immediately,” he adds.
In Rome, from Italy, many will come, almost fifty thousand, for their jubilee. They prepared in time, with the subsidy “Pilgrims of hope”, studied by the CEI on 12 keywords, from “Courage” to “embrace” passing through “people”, “freedom/responsibility”, “discovery”, “joy”, “redemption”.
And from 28 July to 3 August they will be accompanied by the text “Hope does not disappoint”, A tool to metabolize the experience through also a digital diary that allows you to go deep and let yourself be questioned. In addition to making its contributions anonymously, to give way, thanks to the Toniolo Institute, to “draw” an image of today’s young people.
“They were called by groups, parishes, associations, but it is a significant fact that many will also come alone,” explains Don Pinderato. “The intuition of Pope Francis, with the theme of hope and the reference to humanity not to be stolen the future, is particularly felt in this age group”.
On the other hand, the priest recalls, “the Church has always wanted to attract attention, in the Holy Year, on something important for humanity. In the 1950 Jubilee there was the theme of reconstruction after the war, in 1975 peace in the time of the Cold War. In 2000 Christ as a door for the new millennium. In 2016 Mercy and today this very important call to hope that it does not disappoint. Our young people, compared to past years, seem more peaceful and more invisible, but they are suffering from this lack of future. The Church recalls that there is something precious that we must not miss because the future is inhabited by God. And therefore it proposes this that the jubilee “of the” young people, but “with” young people because it continues to see “in” them and “with” them the possibility of a journey».
Before the great vigil and the mass on August 3 with Pope Leone, The young Italians will be in dialogue with the city and with the rest of the world. Also following 12 catechesis in as many parishes. That prepared by the Catholic action in Santa Maria in Vallicella, on the figure of Pier Giorgio Frassati.
The young Turin area whose canonization is scheduled for September 7, will be one of the key witnesses to be inspired. Its body will be present starting from 26 July a Santa Maria above Minerva, The basilica that houses the remains of Santa Caterina, to whom Pier Giorgio was devoted.
Beyond 100 volunteers, Then, coming from different ecclesial and regional realities and hosted at the National boarding school Vittorio Emanuele, the events will follow. An infopoint at the Lumsa Magna Aula, in via delle Fosse di Castello, will take care of the welcome. The parishes, the Caritas are committed, which coordinates and facilitates proximity experiences, there will be a space for the proposals for an accessible church for people with disabilities …
And on 31 July all in St. Peter’s Square for the Confessio Ilosi, A moment for young Italians to tighten around the Pope and testify to their faith. “What we would like,” concludes Don Pincerato, “It is that young people manage to live strong moments that do not end only on the days of the Jubilee. This is an experience that we carry behind. Many of the guys who signed up have done so because they met someone who had already been to Tor Vergata in 2000. Of course, meanwhile the world changed, there are several educational models and reference points. The Church is no longer the educational agency of contemporary culture, and goes on like likes. But this is also a challenge. Because we can offer what is missing, that is, the community. That it is welcoming, warm, capable of being with them on the way ».
