By Catholic News Agency and ACBC Office for Youth
Three Australian young people, together with ACBC Office for Youth Director, Malcolm Hart, have joined more than 250 other young people from more than 110 countries in Rome this week for the XI International Youth Forum, titled ‘Youth in action in a synodal Church’.
Participants in the gathering represent youth from bishops’ conferences, movements and ecclesiatical associations from around the world, as well as 17 young people that participated in last year’s Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment.
Among the 17 selected was Australia’s own auditor at the Synod, Sebastian Duhau.
The two young people selected by the Australian Bishops’ Commission for Evangelisation, Laity and Ministry to represent the Australian Episcopal Conference at the meeting are Holly Roberts and Huw Warmenhoven.
This significant meeting of young people follows last year’s synodal process and the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation, Christus Vivit.
Over four days, Holly, Huw, Sebastian, Malcolm and the worldwide contingent of delegates will reflect on the conclusions of the Synod on Young People and on Pope Francis’ letter to Young People and the entire People of God, Christus Vivit, with the aim of drawing out pastoral responses for realising the realities of the documents in local contexts around the world.
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who is chairman of the U.S. bishops’ conference Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, said he was “grateful” that Pope Francis was continuing the conversations begun at the synod last year and that the forum in Rome was part of an “important dialogue.”
Brian Rhude and Brenda Noriega are two of the young adult leaders who have been asked to represent the United States at the forum.
Rhude, a student of Theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., studied at the Catholic University campus in Rome during the Fall 2018 semester, which coincided with the Synod on Young People. He attended the synod as a media correspondent for the Catholic Apostolate Center.
Noriega is the current coordinator of young adult ministry in the Diocese of San Bernardino, Ca, and also serves on the USCCB’s National Advisory Team on Young Adult Ministry.
Last year, Noriega was co-leader of the bishop and young adult encounter at the V Encuentro national event held in Texas.
All the “youth delegates,” who are between the ages of 18 to 29, will listen to talks and panels on synodality, pastoral ministry, and vocational discernment. They will also meet in groups to consider how to apply the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Christus Vivit to their local youth ministries.
Pope Francis published Christus Vivit, a 50-page letter to “all Christian young people,” April 2 following the Synod of Bishops on young people, faith, and vocational discernment which took place Oct. 3-28.
In Christus Vivit Pope Francis addressed the obstacles to faith and personal fulfulment faced by young people today, such as isolation, over-consumption of media, and addiction to drugs and pornography. Do not let the world “rob you of hope and joy, or drug you into becoming a slave to their interests,” Francis said.
“You need to realize one basic truth: being young is not only about pursuing fleeting pleasures and superficial achievements. If the years of your youth are to serve their purpose in life, they must be a time of generous commitment, whole-hearted dedication, and sacrifices that are difficult but ultimately fruitful.”
On the final day of the International Youth Forum, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life will celebrate Mass in St Peter’s Basilica with the young participants, after which they will meet Pope Francis.
“I think Pope Francis offers a very personal invitation to young people to return to what is most essential: an encounter daily with the love of God and the living person of Christ,” McCafferty said.