Synod: dialogue, education and migrants in the reports by minor circles
The focus of 14 reports are the need for a Church in dialogue that is not self-referential or biased, but is focused on the credibility of testimony. Digital culture and the risk of compulsive behaviour engendered by the "screen culture" were discussed. Pastors must be trained to face the pastoral, missionary and spiritual challenges of a culture of globalisation, secularism and technology.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – The Minor Circles (circuli minores), separate language groups set up to study issues, presented 14 reports in six languages in today’s working session of the Synod on Young People.
Their findings emphasised the need for the Church to be open to dialogue with young people but also committed to their education, capable of offering useful lessons to a generation that is far from that of their parents and is going through a "technological migration", a trend negatively marked by phenomena like migratory waves and sexual abuses.
The highlight is the need for the Church to engage in dialogue, avoid self-referentiality and biases, and highlight the credibility of testimony. Young people, noted the Italian A Circle, "are already the present of the Church, not just the future: When the Church speaks about young people, she is speaking about herself. The use of the conjunction 'and' (in expressions like "the youth and the Church") risks endorsing a distorted understanding, one that separates young people from the community,” whereas youth must be valued and their active participation in Church life must be promoted and renewed.
The Minor Circles focused on the topic of digital culture, which is already an all-encompassing part of young people's lives, full of light but also of shadows, like the growing loneliness and the danger of compulsive behaviour vis-à-vis the “screen culture”.
"Immersion in the virtual world,” noted the English circle, “has produced a sort of 'digital migration', that is to say a moving away from family, cultural and religious values towards a private and self-referential world. Just like immigrants, they feel uprooted from their spiritual homes. So many young people in the West feel the same sort of rootlessness, whilst remaining in the same physical place."
Against this backdrop, for several Circles, the presence of the Church is essential to accompany young people, teaching them that the web should be used but without being used by it.
Abuse is another topic the 14 minor circles examined. Such a scandal undermines the credibility of the Church and must be dealt with in depth in order to regain the trust of the faithful.
In this regard, the English A Circle noted that "The topics that cry out to be openly mentioned in the Synod are the broken trust, survivors’ trauma and suffering, the catastrophic failure to handle the cases, the persistent silence and the denial of some of these terrible crimes and sins."
The Circles also focused on migratory waves, which, according to the Italian D Circle are "an old phenomenon, not one of crisis management anymore, but a true sign of the times in which the Church, united with the Holy Father, is involved at very level, which she cannot fail to grasp, thus helping cultures to open up to something that is historically inevitable."
For the Italian B Circle, "young migrants are a special weak spot (nos. 45-47). They are often forced to look for a better future, fleeing from situations of war, hunger, corruption and lack of democracy, seduced by the fantasy of an illusory well-being."
For this reason, what is needed is the type of pastoral outreach tailored-made for this sector. This includes joint action by the Bishops’ Conferences directly affected by this phenomenon. The cause of migrants must be supported internationally through the creation of channels that are legal and safe. It is thus important to promote opportunities in both the countries of origin and host countries.
Education and training are also important. They must be tangible, interdisciplinary and integral. Given the importance of Catholic schools and universities – which must be promoted, not exploited, so as to teach young people in the faith and in Christian life –, teaching is one of the primary tasks of the Church, for whom, faced with phenomena like fundamentalism and intolerance, the best answer is precisely teaching and promoting both inter-faith and ecumenical respect and dialogue.
Education is also important for pastors. For the French B Circle, "It is a matter of educating pastors to meet the pastoral, missionary and spiritual challenges of the culture of globalisation, secularism and digital technology. In relation to such issues, the priority seems to be rethinking the content of the curriculum in seminaries and noviciates as well as proposing a new priestly style of life and a new type of ordained ministry.”
Finally, many Circles would like to see the Synod send a message to young people, in a style that is suitable for delivering Christian hope, using the words of prophecy that describe God's gaze upon youth.
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