Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - “That was an event filled with significance at the level of church and also for many of us personally”: said Father Francis Khon, head of the Youth Section of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, in his address to open a conference to mark the 20th anniversary of the entrusting of the Cross to the young people of the world. The conference was held on 22 April at the St Lorenzo International Youth Centre and Youth Section of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
It was important first of all because of the great value given to that Cross by the Holy Father Khon affirmed, as a tangible sign of the Lord’s death and resurrection. It was precisely 22 April 1984 when at the end of the special Holy Year of the Redemption 1983-1984 the Pope decided to entrust the youth of the world, with words that are now part of history, the Cross which had been revered in St Peter’s Basilica for those twelve months: “My dearest young people at the end of the Holy Year I entrust to you as a sign of the Jubilee Year, the Cross of Christ. Carry it to the world, as a sign of the love which the Lord Jesus has for humanity and proclaim to all that only in Christ who died and is risen there is salvation and redemption”.
The young people did not hesitate to following the Pope’s instructions and in these twenty years in their hundreds of thousands they have welcomed and shouldered the Cross on its pilgrimage around the world. Buenos Aires, Santiago de Compostela, Czestochowa, Denver, Manila, Paris, Rome and Toronto were only some of the stops which saw the Cross at the centre of contemplation and prayer of many, many young people. So a celebration of these 20 years is not only a recurrence, it is an opportunity to relive the significance of that act of entrusting the Cross to the young people of the world.
After interventions by Rev. Khon and Dr. Marcello Tedeschi, President of the Fondazione Youth Church Hope Foundation, the participants were shown a video on some of the more important laps of the pilgrim Cross’s journey around the world in these twenty years. Many guest speakers had been invited. Most had taken part in one way or another in that first Youth Day on 22 April 1984. Moderated by Dr Dino Boffo, editor of the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire, valid contributions were offered by personalities including Archbishop Gianni Danzi, at the time co-ordinator of Youth Day 1984; Alberto Savorana, Youth Day press officer; Mgr. Domenico Sigalini, former head of National Youth Pastoral Service for the Italian Bishops’ Conference; Mgr. Mauro Parmeggiani, head of Youth Pastoral Service for Rome diocese and Sister Annalisa of the Mother of God, at the time secretary general of that first Youth Day, who precisely 20 years ago decided to enter a convent and is today Superior of a Convent of Discalsed Carmelites in Genoa, Italy.
In his closing address Archbishop Stanislaw Rilko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, spoke of the joy experienced on that day. He said, speaking in front of that Cross at the S. Lorenzo Conference, that coming together twenty years on was not just remembering the past, it meant letting ourselves be touched by the present of this Cross. “We too - he said - are part of the host of young people who have touched and continue to touch the mystery of this Cross.»
In fact the Cross has been touched by many and with its mysterious presence it has touched and changed the lives of many. “If for the past twenty years young people have carried this Cross along the paths of the world, on their shoulders, on sledges, boats, by air, by car and nothing has ever stopped them - said Rev. Khon - it is because with its eloquent presence this Cross led them to start a journey, to rediscover the meaning of pilgrimage and mission, forgetting themselves, stepping out of their routine, to search for God and for others”. (P.R.) (Agenzia Fides 23/4/2004; Righe 45; Parole 658)
