Young Catholics are looking for a Church that listens to their concerns, accompanies them in discerning their vocations and helps them confront the challenges they face, said a working document for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on young people.
The synod’s ‘instrumentum laboris’ (working document), published by the Vatican on 19th June, stated that young people ‘want to see a Church that shares their situations of life in the light of Gospel rather than by preaching’.
Quoting a presynod gathering of young people who met at the Vatican from 19th to 25th March, the working document said young Catholics ‘want an authentic Church. With this, we would like to express, particularly to the church hierarchy, our request for a transparent, welcoming, honest, attractive, communicative, accessible, joyful and interactive community’.
The working document is based mainly on comments solicited in a questionnaire last June from national bishops’ conferences around the world as well as the final document of the presynod gathering.
Picture: World Youth Day pilgrims pray in Krakow, Poland. (CNS photo/Bob Roller).
