Chai Brady
Bishop Donal McKeown The Church needs to “take risks” on young people and use their “idealism and enthusiasm” to lead evangelisation in Ireland, according to the country’s two representatives at the Synod of Bishops.
Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown, told The Irish Catholic that rather than being patronising, and asking “what can we do for young people?” Church leaders must allow youth to make their contribution to the Church’s renewal.
“The mood has changed, has grown, has developed in that way. It’s saying how can we be prepared to take risks with young people, as Jesus did, to trust them, to encourage them to dream for big things,” he said.
“The world needs people who will proclaim justice and community and healing and forgiveness and love and meaningfulness into their complex world, and there’s no one better to do it than they are.”
Bishop McKeown is in Rome with Archbishop Eamon Martin for the Synod of Bishops on ‘Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment’ which runs from October 3-28.
There are 36 young people from five continents attending the synod as ‘listeners’. They have been praised as being instrumental in group discussion with prelates often turning “to the young people for guidance” according to Dr McKeown.
“It’s allowing them to be partly the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to the rest of us old codgers,” he said.
Many of the young people come from places where Christian persecution is prevalent such as the Middle East and India, in other countries human trafficking, poverty and unemployment are redline issues, some young people would underline suicide and social media among major concerns for youth.
Ministry
Archbishop Eamon Martin said that the synod was “a little bit of a bubble” in that those attending are either members of the clergy or deeply committed youth.
“The kind of young people who are with us here at synod, the committed people, with proper formation can become mentors, or in some ways guides for their fellow young people,” he said.
They can be there for their friends and support them through bereavement, relationship breakdown, unemployment, a lack of sense of worth and addiction, Dr Martin added, saying young peers “are able to come to them and introduce them to Jesus as indeed their saviour and the person who will give meaning and purpose to their lives”.