ADDRESS OF YOUNG PEOPLE OF MALTA AND GOZO TO HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI
SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER
18TH APRIL 2010
Gospel text: Mark 10:17
Leader: Your Holiness,
As young people, we believe that the Church’s richness lie in the fact that it
brings together a great diversity of people, not only with regards to age,
language and culture, but also in the variety of expressions of Christian
living, in our different perspectives on life, and the meaning which we give to
the mystery of Jesus Christ in human history. Today in our meeting with you,
your Holiness, our desire is to make manifest this plurality in the Church in
Malta. We are here because we hold in our hearts a sincere wish to seek and
discover the truth.
We believe that this communion of faith finds expression in the power of the
Holy Spirit. Our hearts encompass our different lives and personalities. It is
our desire that through God’s presence among us, our personal lives as well as
the social life of the Church will experience a new creation. We are one Church,
an inclusive Church, a Church that listens. Thus, as the young man who
approached Jesus Christ asked: “Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal
life?” we, the Maltese and Gozitan young people, as well as our friends from
other countries who are present here with us today, turn to you, your Holiness,
Master, and confide our thoughts to you.
1st speaker: Your Holiness,
I wish to speak on behalf of those young people who, like me feel they are on
the outskirts of the Church. We are the ones who do not fit comfortably into
stereo-typed roles. This is due to various factors among them: either because we
have experienced substance abuse; or because we are experiencing the misfortune
of broken or dysfunctional families; or because we are of a different sexual
orientation; among us are also our immigrant brothers and sisters, all of us in
some way or another have encountered experiences that have estranged us from the
Church. Other Catholics put us all in one basket. For them we are those “who
claim to believe yet do not live up to the commitment of faith.” To us, faith is
a confusing reality and this causes us great suffering. We feel that not even
the Church herself recognizes our worth. One of our deepest wounds stems from
the fact that although the political forces are prepared to realize our desire
for integration, the Church community still considers us to be a problem. It
seems almost as if we are less readily accepted and treated with dignity by the
Christian community than we are by all other members of society. We understand
that our way of life puts the Church in an ambiguous position, yet we feel that
we should be treated with more compassion – without being judged and with more
love.
We are made to feel that we are living in error. This lack of comprehension on
the part of other Christians causes us to entertain grave doubts, not only with
regards to community life, but also regarding our personal relationship with
God. How can we believe that God accepts us unconditionally when his own people
reject us?
Your Holiness, we wish to tell you that on a personal level – and some of us,
even in our respective communities – are persevering to find ways in which we
may remain united in Jesus, who we consider to be our salvation.
However, it is not that easy for us to proclaim God as our Father, a God who
responds to all those who love him without prejudice. It is a contradiction in
terms when we bless God’s Holy Name, whilst those around us make us feel that we
are worth nothing to him.
We feel emarginated, almost as if we had not been invited to the banquet. God
has called to him all those who are in the squares and in the towns, those who
are on the wayside and in the country side, however we feel he has bypassed our
streets. Your Holiness, please tell us what exactly is Jesus’ call for us. We
wish you to show to us and the rest of the Church just how valid is our faith,
and whether our prayers are also heard. We too wish to give our contribution to
the Catholic community.
Your Holiness, what must we do?
2nd speaker: Your Holiness,
I speak on behalf of those young people who are on a journey of faith and are
close to the Church.
When we look around us, we can see an active Church that embodies a strong sense
of commitment. It is true that on our part, we may not always be as inclusive as
we should, and we do not always listen with respect to one another, yet the
truth of the matter is that we too, as a group, feel excluded by society.
We are among hundreds of young people who try to put into action the enthusiasm
that we feel for our faith. For us, the Church represents that space in society
which is openly accepting of God. Although it is easier to proclaim our faith,
rather than to live it, we are committed to keeping the presence of the Church
as alive as possible in our society, yet at the same time, we know that by
pledging ourselves to the Church, we are consciously estranging ourselves from
our contemporary culture.
At times, the thought crosses our minds that our work may be insignificant, that
the Catholic community has merely attained the status of a Movement. We give up
on our dreams of being one community, and we feel that it is our faith itself
that impedes us from entering further into dialogue with society.
Although we pray that God’s Kingdom may come about, that all of creation may be
united as one, we still feel that our hopes are in vain. Although we try to live
according to God’s will, we feel that this is a fruitless exercise because our
efforts do not reach far and beyond the peripheries of our society. The
enthusiasm we hold in our hearts comes into conflict with our doubts and
apprehensions: that we may have to abandon our efforts like an unfinished
building, which although founded on strong foundations, is far too expensive to
complete. A heavy responsibility bears upon us, as we strive to be not only the
promise of the future for the Catholic Community, but being the protagonists of
the presence of God’s kingdom.
It is our sincere desire that our endeavours lead the people of God in the right
direction, but we must ensure that the path is being followed. We wish to see
our dedication bearing fruit: that it is, in reality, renewing the Church, and
not simply going down in the annals of history. We believe that by the work we
perform in our parishes, in schools, in our groups and movements, in our
voluntary service both locally and abroad, we are truly giving witness to Jesus
Christ in our lives. We wish to leave our mark on the Church even as we are
young.
Your Holiness, what must we do?
3rd speaker: Your Holiness,
We are a young couple about to get married, and we speak on behalf of young
people whose vocation is married life and family.
We believe that, as mature Christians, we are called to live our faith and our
vocation within a society and a culture that is not at all accommodating. This
is of grave concern to us, because the more time passes, the more difficult it
is for us to live up to the commitment of our choices as Christians. We do not
wish our choice to be an automatic or natural one; we do not wish to be
Christians simply because our ancestors were; neither do we wish this for our
children.
We have taken a commitment to live intimately with God, through the grace of our
marriage. We choose to be married before God because we believe that our family
will be guided by God’s own spirit. But we must admit that family life is not
easy in this day and age. We are conscious that our choices are made against a
background of a culture in which the concept of family is undergoing radical
change: we firmly believe that family values go further than simply being a
group of people united as members of the same family. Our difficulty lies in
rearing a united and happy family in a fragmented culture. It is indeed hard to
make a lifelong commitment to one’s spouse and children, to share our life
together, when it is just as easy to live a single life. We are not only
referring to the material demands which society puts on a couple, example, the
need for both spouses to work in order to support the family financially, but
also to the culture of individualism, which causes confusion in our life. We
feel that it is an impossible feat to realise our ideals. At the same time, we
cannot just renounce the modern way of life, most especially because of our
children. We feel hemmed in between two separate realities. On the one hand, we
wish to live our married life as mundanely as possible, without putting our
children at a disadvantage, on the other hand we are not altogether convinced
that contemporary life style gives stability to our family – which also works
against the interest of our children.
In our hearts, we are sceptical towards the idea of simply trusting God to
provide for our daily needs. We fear that our children are being raised in a
more competitive world than the one we grew up in. We are not sure about our own
interpretation of God’s providence: whether it is totally gratuitous or whether
it is a form of compensation for our wisdom and prudence in raising our
children. We feel that our culture encompasses a wide panorama which
incorporates different forms of life. We wish to persist with our idea of the
family, however, we fear that life offers too many hurdles for us to live our
married lives in God’s light.
We are not just expecting a reward at the end of our earthly lives. We believe
that the grace of God’s presence in our married life will sustain our family as
we develop and grow together. We ask you to help us discern the signs of the
Spirit in our marriage. Help us to see that it was God himself who called us to
our vocation as married couple, even before we invited him to be part of our
marriage. Show us the way to live our married life as a calling from God. Your
Holiness, tell us, what must we do?
4th speaker: Your Holiness,
I stand here on behalf of my friends who are on the road to discerning our
vocation to the priesthood or to the consecrated life.
We firmly believe that God’s call to man should be a most extraordinary
experience, although at times strange, that one can live. It is a call that at
one and the same time creates a state of happiness and of despair. Together with
other young people here with us, we have listened to and heeded the call to
serve through the ministry of the priesthood and the consecrated life.
Courageously we are taking small steps towards our ministerial ordination in
order to look after and care for God’s people. It is a people whose desire is to
live as fruitfully as possible in our modern world – a people who are not
building walls, but rather seek to build bridges. Yet our vocation seems strange
to those members of society who do not form part of our circle.
Many times when we try to integrate ourselves in other areas outside the church,
we are not taken seriously. It is our desire to grow closer to those people who
have distanced themselves from God, yet how are we to touch those hearts which
are cold and suspicious? Maybe by the standards of the collective consciousness
of our culture, the Church seems to be a restraining force, a force that goes
against the grain in life. And the priest often seems to be a personification of
this negative force. We must admit that the Church has passed through phases and
episodes that are not easy to explain or justify once seen through the eyes of
the eyes of today’s open minded mentality. Today we also hear of priests who
fail other persons. But it seems almost as if this admission of our shortcomings
is not worth anything, and we are still held at arm’s length by some people.
We do not feel that it is just that we are held responsible for the mistakes
made by a few others – that we too are measured by the same yardstick –
especially since we are trying to live out the implications of our vocation ion
a faithful manner. Yet at the same time we are aware that this forms part of our
calling. With trepidation, we beg God for forgiveness of our sins and to save us
from danger because we realize that to a great extent, although we may have to
face difficult situations, we do not wish to endanger others.
Yet we need to take the necessary steps forward even though we may not always be
convinced about our wider role as pastors. Why should we continue to follow the
sheep who seeks another flock? Why should we leave the flock where we are made
welcome? We desire to be sustained in our mission as priests because our Church
should be prepared to make everybody welcome, to find a place for everyone who
needs it. We believe that in the name of Jesus Christ, we should invite new
people to discover God, to look after the hearts of all persons, not only
Catholics. Yet to do this we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the Shepherd
who leaves his flock, to go after one single heart. We wish you integrate
ourselves into a society who does not reserve a place for us. Your Holiness,
what must we do?
Leader: Your Holiness,
We ardently await your message of hope, a message that in the years to come will
help us to recognise better the true face of the Divine Master – Jesus of
Nazareth.