ROME, Italy
Emilia Paniagua, member of the Teresian Association (TA) and Marina Sampayo, of TA Youth (Spain) represented the Teresian Association at the meeting “From Krakow to Panama. The Synod journeying with young people,” organized by the new Dicastery of the Holy See, for the Laity, Family and Life, from April 5-9 at the Pontifical Colegio Internacional Maria Mater Ecclesiae.
Approximately 300 young people from 103 countries and 44 movements, associations and communities were invited to respond to Pope Francis' sentiment: “The Church wishes to listen to your voice, your sensitivity, your faith; even your doubts and your criticism. Make your cry heard. Let it resonate in your communities and let it be heard also by your pastors." These words are part of the letter written to young people by the Pope in calling the next Synod with the theme "Young people, faith and vocational discernment."
Another objective of the meeting was the evaluation of World Youth Day (WYD) in Krakow and the presentation of the work of the Organizing Committee of WYD in Panama 2019. Delegates also participated in Holy Mass on Palm Sunday in Piazza San Pietro in Rome, presided over by Pope Francis, a celebration of WYD in dioceses. At the end of the celebration the youth delegation from Krakow handed the "WYD Cross" to the young people from Panama, a symbol present in all WYD since 1985.
Emilia Paniagua and Marina Sampayo were sent by the Governing Council of the Teresian Association to represent the Association. Marina Sampayo shares her impressions in the following text.
Sharing
It was like a blind date for I knew very little about what we were going to do exactly and even less about who organized it. When I was invited to participate in the meeting organized by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life for the preparation of the Synod, I thought: what is a Dicastery? And what does a Synod consist of? So, I resorted to the great resource of many young people: Wikipedia. The Synod seeks to include both young believers and those who are not, but how can this happen if we do not even know what a Synod is? This made me realize that the ecclesial language is far removed from that of the youth and then that I had to suggest the following at the meeting: an adaptation of the language to young people and search for adequate channels of communication, because I doubt that there are many young people attracted by the downloadable documents from the Vatican website.
That the Church may trust us
We worked in two ways: through conferences with a space for open interventions and in small discussion groups that later reported to the large group. In this way we shared good experiences, situations of very interesting local realities and proposals to bring the Church closer to the young.
Those were intense days when we had time to discuss many issues around young people. Thus, I will only highlight a few. First, I want to convey the vision that was presented to young people, which made many people happy and motivated: Young people do not like to be only recipients of pastoral projects and dynamics. We like to create, to feel useful, to see that our efforts bear fruit, that we can enrich each other and that we are, as Poveda said, the "force of the world."
We need the Church to trust us, not to be afraid of our creativity and vitality, to give us responsibilities and tools; that is, to accompany us as active subjects of the reality of the world. Yes, it is true that we alone are not capable, but community is very important in our lives. It welcomes us, guides us humbly, advises us, allowing us to give the best of ourselves to all others: grown-ups and children, close and distant, well off and disadvantaged, but above all to ourselves.
Those who can understand young people best are young people themselves because what is better than working to reach out and welcome our peers? This proposal certainly does not exclude those who are older and do a great job, but it wants to express the desire to work together and rely on our capabilities.
All vocations are valid and necessary
Two other important points were vocation and discernment. Personally, I loved the description of vocation in a broad way since each one responds differently to the immense love of God. This often is not revealed to us in obvious ways, and even less now that we are surrounded by a culture of indecision and uncertainty. Once again, we need the accompaniment of others who are more experienced to help us in the process of discernment of our life project. It was stressed, and I want to emphasize, that there is no vocation better than others, that all are equally valid, equal in complexity and all of them are necessary. Therefore, we need the accompaniment of all, and especially of those who are inclined to marriage, which being the most common vocation sometimes it is taken for granted.
There were many other ideas and proposals not presented in this article, which are not to be left aside. In addition to the fruits of the Synod of Bishops, we must also be involved in this work that the Pope proposes to the Church, and give our fruit as a Teresian Association, TA Youth, and as individuals in our day-to-day living.
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