• There are those who affirm that the language of the Church doesn't reach young people. From the Sodalit experience, how would you respond to this criticism?
Pope John Paul II and now Pope Benedict XVI have impelled the process of the New Evangelization. This process allows that the perennial truths of the faith be presented in an existential way that better helps them to be understood, as it also helps people to open themselves to the grace to live them daily giving glory to God. The One who calls to the interior of the person is the Lord Jesus and He does so from his Mission and the fascination that his Mystery produces. Whoever really encounters Him experiences the overwhelming attraction of the Truth. Such an encounter with Him moves one to an affective adherence as much as it does to an adherence to the truth that his Person reveals. It is that the Lord Jesus appeals to the mind with the Truth, his beauty awakens emotion and invites one to follow his path seeking to do good, "as He went about doing good." Upon encountering Jesus without fear, reason ignites and feelings are enlivened surpassing the ruptures and tensions that burden the person since He, who is the Reconciler, offers the human being the reconciling response to all ruptures, opening the way to the harmony of reason and affection, and in this way recovering the transcendent horizon of existence.
The heart of the Church's message is the Lord Jesus, and He is the "same yesterday, today and forever." It is He whom young people search for, even if some are blind before the light, others stumble in the darkness of the world, others allow themselves to be the fascinated by false substitutes. But millions and millions open their heart to Him. Perhaps we have forgotten those millions of young people in Tor Vergata? Or perhaps we don't perceive the internal search of the immense multitude of youth gathered at the last World Youth Day in Germany?
There is a sense of adventure and of search of the truth, of longing for the infinite, of nostalgia for reconciliation that is rooted in the profundity of each young person. When these interior fibers are touched, young people respond yearning to be and to live authentically, listening to the depth of their hearts. It requires courage and leaving fear behind. There's a reason the Magisterium of the Church keeps repeating the phrase, "Do not be afraid!", as a living echo of Jesus. The young people who overcome fear can audaciously live the great adventure of the encounter of friendship with the Lord Jesus. And indeed many do!
• What role do you consider that the Ecclesial Movements have today inside the Church?
Yesterday as today I believe their role is fundamental. Historically the movements have been gifts of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. For example, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, upon analyzing historically the reality of the movements pointed out that already in the third century the characteristics of a movement could be identified in monastic life. He said that "without any difficulty monasticism could be defined as 'movement.'" I am convinced that there have been many waves of "movements" throughout the history of the Church. It is one of the ways the Spirit vitalizes the People of God. Today a new flowering of them has appeared. It's astounding this surge of movements with characteristics and forms so diverse, with distinct styles, responding to diverse necessities but solidly linked to ecclesial communion. The great gift of the Spirit that is expressed in the Ecclesial Movements that are born in the today of our history, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, has been splendidly emphasized by the Magisterium of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. These waves of Ecclesial associative expressions that we call movements are answers of the Holy Spirit in the face of the challenges and new situations with which the Church continues encountering in her history. Today, especially linked to the See of Peter and at the same time in communion with local bishops, the Ecclesial Movements enrich the reality of the People of God with charisms that they receive from the Holy Spirit. It speaks much of the vitality of the movements and astonishment arises in response to the spiritual impulse and the radical nature of the Gospel that they contribute in the particular churches. This constitutes a gift for the apostolic mission and a responsibility for the members of the Ecclesial Movements to respond to the impulse received from the Spirit and to express fidelity to the faith of the Church, always seeking to live with Christian coherence in daily life.
• What are the new challenges facing youth at the beginning of the 21st Century?
There are a number of crises that weaken the faith, especially of those who are less formed in it. Secularism, rationalism, functional agnosticism, hedonism, epistemological distrust, the devaluation of the intellect, reductionisms of all kinds and other widespread tendencies and ideologies today are like a negative cultural humus in which the person struggles without ceasing to aspire to overcome the obstacles to his being that which he aspires to be from his interior. There is a generalized resignation from what is properly human, from human dignity. This adverse climate could be synthesized in three crises: of thought, of desires, and of action. Youth, in general, suffer them very strongly because they are more prone to falling into subjectivism, fomented by fear. For this reason the proclamation of faith must be integral and must respond to these three critical areas.
In face of the series of problems concerning truth and subjectivism, it is necessary to announce He who is "the Truth" with clarity, helping the knowledge of Jesus to go hand in hand with his teachings, the faith that the Church keeps. In the face of a confusion between "I like it" and therefore it is good, "I don't like it" and therefore it is bad, in the face of the crisis of values and of desires, one must present the Way of the Lord, of He who went about doing good and who assumes situations that are difficult and that bring him suffering for the sake of authentic and greater values. The young person must be helped to understand that his desires are not the norm, that on occasion he does indeed desire things which are bad. When Pope John Paul II spoke of "sin as a suicidal act," he implied that there are fatal desires. It's a question of presenting the meaning and importance of the good on the path to happiness. There is always a danger of acting badly, before which it is important to present the value of right action. Prudence and charity are not alien to a right exercise of action. In this rapidly changing world we can even speak of a spirituality of action which is expressed in the charity that is the force capable of changing man and the world. We don't say that "Only the saints will change the world" for nothing. And we have to remember that every baptized person is called to be a saint.
