Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Sydney (Agenzia Fides) - The hopes of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Pell, the Bishops of Sydney World Youth Day organising committee are already coming true with abundant fruits: World Youth Days represent for young pilgrims a fundamental event in their spiritual growth and itinerary of conversion and strengthening the motivations of faith. This emerged from study by Prof. Richard Rymarz, scholar and docent at the Catholic University of Australia, on “Youth and new evangelisation in the 21st Century ”.
Prof. Rymarz spoke with young Australians who took part in WYD in Cologne 2005. His research intended to assess the impact of that experience in the young people's lives. The emerging results were broadly positive: in the conclusions published by Australasian Catholic Record magazine of anthropological and religious studies, he says the greatest change noted concerned the interior life of the young person. “WYD gave them a desire to be more seriously committed to the journey of faith, while before faith was something external or superficial, something handed on by the family, but without any profound personal significance”, says Prof. Rymarz. This, the study underlines is the concrete implementation of the concept of “new evangelisation” launched by Pope John Paul II. The study concludes with a question: will this be a lasting change? This can be something to discuss at World Youth Day in Sydney in July next year. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 28/11/2007 righe 26 parole 261)
