tvc.dsj.org | October 23, 2018
SYNOD ON YOUNG PEOPLE, THE FAITH, AND VOCATIONAL DISCERNMENT
19
Delegates from U.S. Offer Their Perspectives At Synod
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY -- Young people
today are telling Catholic leaders that
if they want to persuade the young to
follow Christ and pursue a vocation,
church leaders must be models of Gos-
pel behavior, said the head of the De La
Salle Christian Brothers.
Members of the Synod of Bishops
have made repeated references to the
story of Jesus and the rich young man
in the Gospel -- how Jesus told him to
sell everything and follow him; several
synod members have cited the passage
to affirm that Jesus continues to place
tough demands on young people.
But Philadelphia-born Brother Rob-
ert Schieler, superior general of the
brothers, suggested another way of
looking at the story. He asked members
of the synod to consider “that we, the
church, are the rich young man.”
When the story is about Jesus’ de-
mands on the church, rather than on
young people today, he said, then it
becomes a challenge to the church “to
embrace risk, to be willing to leave our
individual and collective comfort zones
and to trust in divine providence.”
Young people who challenge the
church in that way, he said, “are try-
ing to tell us: ‘If you are inviting me to
consider a Christian vocation, I expect
you to model for me Gospel behavior.’”
Brother Schieler was one of several
U.S. synod members to address the
gathering Oct. 16 and Oct. 17.
Byzantine Archbishop William C.
Skurla of Pittsburgh used the synod as
an opportunity to publicly thank Pope
Francis “for restoring our ancient prac-
tice of marriage for priests,” including
those living outside the traditional East
European homeland of the Ruthenian
church.
“The restoration of the married
clergy in 2014 has increased the number
of seminarians and allowed ordained
married priests from our churches in
Eastern Europe to come to the United
States” and minister, the archbishop
said. “The new priests have renewed
and revitalized our church in the
Pope Francis blesses a synod observer
before a session of the Synod of Bishops
on young people, the faith and vocational
discernment at the Vatican Oct. 16. (CNS
photo/Vatican Media)
United States.”
Archbishop Skurla had a very prac-
tical suggestion for after the synod:
Each diocese or eparchy should have
a priests’ assembly that would include
representative young people. The pur-
pose would be to share ideas from the
pope, the synod’s final document and,
“most importantly,” examples of suc-
cessful programs already taking place
in parishes.
Maronite Bishop Abdallah Zaidan
of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Ange-
les told the synod the Catholic Church
needs to figure out a way to get young
people as fascinated with God as they
are with their phones and tablets.
“We need to be able to relate our
faith to the youth,” he said. “We need
to coach them to take God with them
wherever they go,” just like they take
their phones.
“Probably,” he said, “the church
should invest resources to design
educational platforms, games and
interactive tools on their phones and
computers in order to engage young
people so they get to know God better
and love him more.”
The bishop also pleaded with his
Latin-rite brothers to be open and sen-
sitive to the needs of young migrants
from Christian communities in the
Middle East.
“For many of these displaced peo-
ple, the church is a source of comfort
and connection to their heritage,” he
said. “It offers hospitality, integration
into the fabric of society and supports
them in their new countries.”
Latin American Bishops say Young Want a Sincere, Welcoming Church
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Bishops
from Chile and Puerto Rico told the
Synod of Bishops that the church
must do more to help young people
l ive out t hei r fa it h a nd i nvolve
them in the life of the church rather
than leaving them to find guidance
elsewhere. Bishop Moises Atisha
Contreras of San Marcos de Arica,
Chile, told synod members Oct. 16
that young people have not stopped
believing in God, and t hey con-
tinue to search for the transcendent
“in other places and experiences.
There are studies that indicate an
increasing dissatisfaction among
young people within the ecclesial
inst it ut ional experience because
it does not respond to their most
profound seeking,” Bishop Atisha
said. The 49-year-old Chilean bishop
said young people need a sincere
accompaniment that gives them a
true experience of being loved as
Update: Superiors General See no Reason
Why Women Shouldn’t Have Vote at Synod
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Although
bishops should make up the major-
ity of voting members at a Synod of
Bishops, the fact that the body is only
consultative means women should
be included as full members just as
priests and religious brothers are,
said three priests who are voting
members.
The superiors general of the Do-
minicans, the Jesuits and the Conven-
tual Franciscans -- all priests who are
voting members of the synod -- spoke
to reporters at a Vatican briefing Oct.
15. When the men’s Union of Supe-
riors General chose two religious
brothers to be among their 10 voting
delegates at the Synod of Bishops,
they consciously made the choice to
emphasize that men’s religious orders
include both priests and laymen,
the minister general of the Conven-
tual Franciscans said. “Obviously, it
wasn’t an accident” that two brothers
were elected, Father Marco Tasca, the
minister general, told Catholic News
Service after the briefing. “Conse-
crated life is made up of priests and
laypeople, so it is only right that
there also be lay superiors general
at the synod.” When the superiors
elected a brother to the 2015 synod, he
said, “there were some doubts about
whether or not the synod office would
accept him, but the pope intervened
and said, ‘Let him come.’ Case closed.
“This time we didn’t ask,” Father
Tasca said.
they are “without condition, with-
out prejudices and freely. Bishop
Atisha made several suggestions for
how the church could respond to the
needs of young men and women,
especially their longing for a church
that is “a place of refuge and care for
the excluded.”
Holy Family’s
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Protesters chant outside the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith before the
opening session of the Synod of Bishops
on young people, the faith and vocational
discernment at the Vatican Oct 3. Protesters
demanded that women be given the right to
vote at the synod. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
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