Vatican: The Pontifical Council for the Laity and Family the life at a Press Conference on Tuesday presented “Pastoral Guidelines for the celebration of World Youth Day (WYD) in local Churches”.
The speakers at the conference were: Father Alexandre Awi Mello, I.Sch., Secretary of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life; Father João Chagas, Head of the Youth Office of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life; Dr. Dorota Abdelmoula, Official of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life; Maria Lisa Abu Nassar, 26, from Nazareth, Reception Coordinator at the San Lorenzo International Youth Center; and Gelson Fernando Augusto Dinis, 24, Angolan, seminarian, student of Dogmatic Theology in Rome.
The international World Youth Day (WYD) celebrations are held every three years in a different country with the participation of the Holy Father. The ordinary celebration of the event, on the other hand, takes place annually in the particular Churches that undertake the organization of the observance.
At the end of the Eucharistic celebration on the Solemnity of Christ the King, on 22 November last year, Pope Francis wanted to relaunch the celebration of WYD in the particular Churches and announced that, starting from 2021, this celebration, traditionally lived on Palm Sunday, will be held the Sunday on which the Solemnity of Christ the King occurs.
This change of date, dictated above all by reasons of pastoral opportunity, maintains the emphasis on the “mystery of Jesus Christ the Redeemer of man” and at the same time seeks to broaden the possibilities of proposing activities and initiatives for young people in a cone of light that radiates from the same mystery.
During the final document of the Synod of Bishops on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment, it mentioned that World Youth Day, […] and national and diocesan meetings play an important part in the lives of many young people, since they offer a living experience of faith and communion that can help them meet life’s great challenges and responsibly take their place in society and in the Church.”
These meetings, it felt, was born of the prophetic intuition of St. John Paul II and have been recognized by most as a source of grace for many young people, for youth ministry and for the entire Church.
The speakers at the conference felt that international WYD and its local editions will be able to feed each other. The international dimension expands the horizons of young people and opens them to universal brotherhood. Local WYD, due to the geographical and physical proximity it presupposes, can more easily generate a commitment in young people, such as to change the face of the society in which they live, and increase their sense of belonging.