Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - At the beginning of the month of October, traditionally dedicated to missions, and in the year the Synod of Bishops is dedicated to the vocational discernment of the young, Fides News Agency presents the profiles of some young people who, in this millennium which has just begun, have not hesitated to “go forth” and put their lives in the hands of God to proclaim his Gospel and witness him, even by their very presence in particularly difficult situations: in hospital wards, with abandoned children, reaching a small, remote Catholic community, youth workers in an oratory in the middle of a war …
The youth of our times, similar to many of their contemporaries, certainly not naïve or unprepared, with high-school diplomas, lovers of music or dance, social media users, that have prepared themselves spiritually and culturally to face realities different to their own, evaluating objectively the risks in places where some thought of spending a period of time, others an entire lifetime.
"Let us go forth, then, let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus” Pope Francis repeats continually. "If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life" (Evangelii Gaudium 49).
This being “rightly disturbed” has certainly been felt by the many young people who have “gone forth” to help others, above all, the most despised, the abandoned and the forgotten, heedless of sacrificing a comfortable and, in some cases, affluent lifestyle, happy to give their life "to offer everyone the life of Jesus". They have not let that “missionary enthusiasm” be taken, that which pushed them to go forth in the name of God and that which the young of today are called upon to embrace as a precious inheritance from their contemporaries’ bloodshed, and who continue to give life to the Church of Christ in the third millennium. (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 6/10/2018)
