Irish youth urged to invite friends back to Church

The nearly 2,000 Irish pilgrims who were present at World Youth Day in Lisbon with Pope Francis have been urged to use the experience to invite their friends back to the Church.

Pope Francis told more than 1.5 million pilgrims at the weekend that the Church is a home for everyone, and that no-one should feel unwelcome in their parish.

Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran told The Irish Catholic that the main message of inclusion resonated with the young pilgrims.

“Pope Francis was so generous in the gift of himself; and so energised. He didn’t speak at the young people. He spoke to them as partners in mission.

“The Mass with Pope Francis is described as a ‘Mass of Mission’. We know already from chatting with our group that they are open to playing their part in the mission of welcoming other young adults into a living community of faith in our diocese,” Bishop Doran said.

Ger Gallagher, who has been co-ordinating Irish groups at World Youth Day for almost 30 years, said he felt the event was “an extremely good restart for youth ministry in Ireland, post-pandemic”.

“The Pope kept underlining the need for young people to be missionaries to other young people about the Faith, it’s as simple as just talking about the Faith to other young people…sharing the [World Youth Day] experience,” he said.

Mr Gallagher warned that the emphasis is now on Church leaders in Ireland to translate the message into work.

“This was the smallest delegation of young Irish people ever at World Youth Day,” he said, “but we had 12 bishops, which was great, the onus is now on them to put the focus on youth ministry in Ireland.

“The young people who were in Lisbon will bring home hugely positive memories, they’ve been neglected by the Church – and the pandemic has worsened that, now is the time for Church leaders to invest time and energy with these young people so they can be equipped to evangelise their generation,” Mr Gallagher said.