By Edoardo Giribaldi, Vatican News and Justin McLellan, CNS
Young people today must be open to love and let themselves be led and accompanied by God in the face of life’s challenges, Pope Francis has said.
In the second edition of the “Popecast,” produced by Vatican Media in Italian and released July 25, the Holy Father responded to the stories of young people recorded ahead of World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, scheduled for 1 to 6 August.
The first episode of the Vatican Media’s podcast with Pope Francis was released in March, in which he looked back on the first 10 years of his pontificate.
The Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life also released a podcast series with the intention of talking about how its work concretely impacts the lives of people in the church.
Meanwhile, the Popecast’s latest episode focused on marginalised youth, and one person the Holy Father heard from was Giona — Jonah in Italian — a transgender, homosexual and disabled Catholic who described how his faith helped him accept his identity and body despite his disability.
“The Lord always walks with us, even if we are sinners he comes toward us to help us,” the Holy Father said after hearing Giona’s story. “The Lord loves us as we are. This is God’s crazy love.”
Like the prophet Jonah, “people are often stubborn,” he said, “and that stubbornness closes us” to God’s love. Yet the Holy Father urged Giona to “not surrender” and recalled that “God always caresses us” and “walks with us,” even if it is sometimes difficult to feel.
“The opportunity to go to World Youth Day and meet millions of other young Catholics is a really critical moment in the life of the Church in Australia and particularly for young people.”
With these words, Malcolm Hart, Director of the National Centre for Evangelisation at the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, presented the upcoming WYD from the perspective of “about 3,000 or more” young Australians about to embark on the pilgrimage to Portugal.
Together with them, the delegation – “one of our largest to World Youth Day” – will see the presence of 19 Australian bishops, representing about half of the total in the country.
“The commitment they have shown is really exciting,” Mr Hart affirmed. “It’s also a great opportunity. There is a lot of learning that happens between young people and the bishops.”
About eighty groups will travel, divided according to their dioceses, and touch on various locations on their way to Lisbon. “The Holy Land, Rome and Italy, France and Lourdes, as well as Spain, and of course Portugal and Fatima.”
World Youth Day represents an occasion for young people from all around the world to come together. “The opportunity to travel is very appealing,” Mr Hart admitted, “but to do a travel of faith on pilgrimage is even more exciting.”
These experiences represent a time “of faith experience, exploration, and growth” in the lives of young people, especially when they get to know millions of other Catholic peers. It’s also a “really critical moment in the life of the church in Australia.”
In fact, the country “is becoming very secular, very isolating of people of faith and church. That’s why it’s really important for young people to come along and see so many large groups of Catholics, to share with them, to listen to their stories and struggles and joy and wisdom, and demonstrate how relevant faith is in their lives today.”
The encounter with Pope Francis
Even more importantly, according to the Director of the National Centre for Evangelization at the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, is the time that young pilgrims are going to spend with the bishops themselves, but also with Pope Francis.
“He is very strong in his words to young people, and they respond,” Mr Hart affirmed.
“Seeing him and being greeted by the Holy Father is a moment of grace. It really reinforces the whole journey, the pilgrimage, the encounter with other young people.”
Those moments will live in the hearts of the pilgrims “all of their lives,” but also in the heart of the Church in Australia, which has benefitted from the “lasting impact” of the previous World Youth Days.