The conference aims to be a contribution to the Synod on young people taking place in the Vatican. Testimonies from Iraq, China, Cambodia, Brazil, Hong Kong. Direct experiences of missionaries who "put themselves alongside" the sufferings, difficulties and joys of the new generations, not content with merely studying them.
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by Bernardo Cervellera | CHINA-VATICAN2018 AsiaNews Symposium: Fr Marcelo on restless youth, looking for answers from 'credible witnesses'
by Marcelo Farias dos Santos | BRAZIL – VATICAN – JAPANA Salesian educator talks about his interactions with young people in the metropolis and with students from mainland China. Expressing love for Christ through witnesses and fellow Christians is urgent. The maturing of the faith in young people is delayed by making compromises with those who hold economic and political power.
“Cambodia is at a critical juncture. In the past few years, it has been moving into the modern world from a predominantly rural society that existed for thousands of years.” “Always having the Lord beside us and walking with him gives them [young people] a lot of strength, the light to make the choices they have to make and courage in carrying them forward.”
The testimony of a Chaldean priest, the first to return to the Nineveh Plain, after the defeat and the expulsion of the Islamic State. The experience among the Mosul refugees in Kurdistan, in need of everything. The return to the Plain, where churches, houses and shops are rebuilt and the foundations of coexistence between Christians and Muslims for a new Iraq are laid.
“And let us be careful with ourselves for this should lead us to think about our own life. Do I seek to look only at appearances, and not change my heart? Do I not open my heart to prayer, to the freedom of prayer, the freedom of almsgiving, the freedom of works of mercy?”
The gathering held today will hear testimonies from Iraq, China, Cambodia, Brazil, and Hong Kong. A contribution to the Synod on Youth taking place in the Vatican. Overcoming a sociological and political view of the world of young people. Faith in Jesus Christ and the company of adult missionaries a path to exalt the qualities of young people and lead them to become builders of a new society.
In his intervention at the Symposium - and a contribution to the Synod on Youth - a priest from central China paints the picture of evangelizing young people in China: the urbanization of migrants, who distance themselves from the faith; rural churches that are empty; the "confusion" city life Parents are true catechists.
The Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops writes an open letter to the former nuncio to Washington. In it, he describes the former nuncio’s accusations as a baseless “political manoeuvre”. “I cannot understand how you could have allowed yourself to be convinced of this monstrous accusation which has no standing,” he writes.
Chinese faithful, official and underground communities, express their feelings about the present and the future of the Sino-Vatican provisional agreement. Many ask for the publication of the agreement document; others that bishops held in prison are freed and that the unofficial bishops are recognized by the government. The fear that China will belittle the Vatican. Fidelity to the Pope and to the unity of the Church, but concern for the rise in "collaborator" bishops.
For the optimists the provisional agreement is "historic"; for the pessimists it is the beginning of the total sell out of the Church to the Party. The Pope is involved in naming bishops. But we know nothing of a right of veto. The lifting of excommunications is good, but the faithful expect a public request for forgiveness. China has not asked for a break with Taiwan as a prior condition. Praise for Lithuanian martyrs, amid silence on the Chinese ones.
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