A pre-synodal meeting is going to take place in Rome from March 19-24, 2018, in the Vatican ahead of the 15th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October the topic: Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment.
Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, presented the initiative in the Holy See Press Office this morning, along with Msgr. Fabio Fabene, under-secretary of the Synod of Bishops; Stella Marilene Nishimwe, a young woman from Burundi; Filippo Passantino, a young Italian; and Greg Burke, Director of the Press Office.
The purpose of the meeting, the Cardinal explained, is to provide the opportunity for young people to produce a document, which expresses their view on the state of things, their ideas, their feelings and their recommendations, to be presented to the Synodal Fathers.
Some 300 people, representing young people from the 5 continents, are expected to participate in this preliminary gathering. Bishops’ conferences, religious congregations, and other Vatican dicasteries were involved in selecting the young people who will participate.
On March 25, on Palm Sunday, the input from this meeting will be delivered to the Pope. It will be among the various items taken into account in the Instrumentum laboris to be used by the Synod fathers.
How Young People Can Be Participate From Around the World
Expressing the Vatican’s desire that young people all over the world can also engage in these discussions, the Italian prelate stressed they are encouraged to do so, by means of social media.
How can young people take part in the meeting? Young Italian Filippo Passantino pointed out the available instruments on the social networks.
Filippo, who is part of a group of young people, invited to the heart of the Synod’s Secretariat, to promote participation on the social networks, hoped that “the Church can speak the language of young people.” So the group created a Facebook page, multilingual Twitter and Instagram accounts with “a young look to speak to other young people.”
He explained that it’s about “transforming the social networks into a forum open to all,” so that numerous young people can take part in the Pre-Synodal meeting, in addition to the 300 young people who will be there. Young people are invited to share their stories, their questions on these social networks. “We have received many messages from the whole world,” said Filippo. The common hashtag on these international networks is: #Synod2018.
The young Italian said that he expected from the Synod words of encouragement on the way young people “can be happy today, in a demanding and competitive world, which seems not to leave a place to the human dimensions and to authentic relations.” Young people want to “sow seeds of hope in today’s world” and ”the Synod might be a precious occasion to invite all those responsible not to close any door to young people,” he added.
For young people, a Facebook page has been created: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pre.synodal/about
The Synod’s official site published, in English, with useful instruments for the Pre-Synodal meeting:
http://www.synod2018.va/content/synod2018/en/pre-synodal-meeting.html
