Brasilia, Brazil (Monday, 03/02/2015, Gaudium Press) Next Palm Sunday, which will be celebrated on March 29, a Diocesan Youth Day will take place in every diocese of Brazil as a preparatory event for the international World Youth Day (WYD) to be held in July 2016 in Krakow, Poland.
The theme chosen is: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5,8), which was suggested by Pope Francis himself. For this purpose the Episcopal Pastoral Commission for the Youth of the Brazilian Catholic Bishops Conference has provided guidelines for the studies and prayers to be done by the participants of the event.
According to the auxiliary bishop of Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, and chairman of the Committee on Youth, Bishop Eduardo Pinheiro da Silva, the text aims to “contribute with the ecclesial communities and with the dioceses of Brazil so that they can work within the spirit of WYD “. Also Bishop Pinheiro said that the Church in Brazil aims to stimulate young people to have a real experience of their faith and to encourage them to go out and reach those young people whose hearts are wounded.”
Letter of Pope Francis for the Diocesan Youth Day
“Dear young people,” writes Pope Francis, “as you see, this blessing is closely related to your life and it is an assurance for your own happiness. So I repeat once again to you: Have the courage to be happy.”
“Exactly thirty years ago, Pope John Paul II launched the World Youth Days. This youth pilgrimage across all continents, under the giddiness of the Successor of Peter, was truly a providential and prophetic initiative. Together, we thank the Lord for the precious fruits that it has produced in the lives of so many young people throughout the world.”
“How many important discoveries, especially those of Christ, as the Way, Truth and Life, and the Church as a large and welcoming family. How many lives have changed, how many vocational decisions sprang from those meeting. May the maternal gaze of the Blessed Virgin Mary, full of grace, all beautiful and all pure, follow us on this path”, he concluded. (LMI)
