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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis presided over a prayer vigil in the Basilica of St. Mary Major on Saturday evening, to open the diocesan celebration of World Youth Day, which this year is being marked in dioceses all throughout the world on Palm Sunday.

The Rome diocese has chosen a special Marian theme for its world World Youth Day celebrations this year – celebrations that are also the official opening of preparations for the 2018 Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which is focused on young people, discernment, and vocational accompaniment.

The website of the Rome diocese explains that the desire of the Church is to make young people protagonists of this journey: to allow them, by their prayerful presence, to enter upon the journey of the synodal process.

It was the originator of World Youth Day, Pope St. John Paul II, who decided to make Palm Sunday the day on which the diocesan iterations of World Youth Day would be celebrated in the years between the great worldwide gatherings of young people, the next of which is scheduled to be held in Panama City from January 22-29, 2019.

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Vatican City, Apr 8, 2017 / 04:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- An international conference this week in Rome is seeking feedback from young people on the upcoming 2018 Synod of Bishops, as preparations are also underway for the 2019 World Youth Day in Panama.

The purpose of the April 5-9 conference, “From Krakow to Panama: The synod on the way with the young,” was primarily to de-brief on WYD in Krakow and to help with the planning and implementation of WYD Panama in January 2019.

A new aspect this year, however, the conference also dedicated two days to a presentation of the prepatory document for the 2018 Synod of Bishops, which will discuss “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment.”

According to an April 6 statement, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, said it’s important to note that the upcoming synod is not being put on by young people or about them as subjects of study, but that it is for them, and that is why it is important they are included.

He also explained that the preparatory document is just the beginning of the process.

Bishop Fabio Fabene, Undersecretary of the Synod, also explained the document and the dynamics of how they are consulting with local Churches, learning about the situation of young people around the world, and involving youth throughout the process.

“We also want to talk to those who are distant and indifferent,” he said, “showing them a Church that is caring for their present and their future.”

The conference included 300 delegates from bishops’ conferences from 104 countries and from 44 different movements, associations, and communities, as well as a large number of youth.

Put on by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life and the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, the meeting is leading up to the diocesan-level World Youth Day in Rome April 9.

Presentations throughout the week included testimony from youth on WYD Krakow and from Archbishop Jose Domingo Ulloa Mendieta of Panama on the preparations for WYD Panama.

Delegates from various countries gave feedback on the preparatory document and the topic for the upcoming Synod, including the United States, which asked that the document be presented to young people in a creative manner, including social media.

Some countries, like Burundi and Colombia, face many challenges to the faith, but said they have high expectations for the outcome of the Synod.

In the afternoon on April 6, Alessandro Rosina, Professor of Demography and Statistics at the Catholic University of Milan and a Synod consultant, presented analysis on the situation of young people from the first part of the synod document.

Rosina said that “people are not young in the same way in all periods of history: the experience of being young today is unique and must be recognized as such. Furthermore, while the young share common traits throughout the world, there are also local features, and regions have their characteristics.”

The Church “must grow more attentive to the young and become a positive experience in their lives so that they may choose her,” he said. “We need audacious young people,” he continued, quoting Pope Francis, “who are aware that they are a value for the world.”

In addition to the working days, the conference included a Friday evening concert for youth put on by two musical groups of the Focolare Movment: Gen Rosso and Gen Verde, of which the latter is a musical group made up entirely of women of various nationalities.

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Caracas, Venezuela, Apr 8, 2017 / 12:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A group of religious men and women in Venezuela have expressed their concern over the country's political crisis and the lack of autonomy of the branches of the federal government.

“As consecrated religious , we invite and accompany our people to demonstrate their will, joined with sound judgement and non-violence, but with forcefulness, so that the arbitrariness leading us to a situation of dictatorship is corrected,” the Conference of Religious Men and Women of Venezuela (CONVER) said in an April 4 statement.

Venezuela's crisis sharpened last week after the nation's Supreme Court announced it would assume the functions of the National Assembly, but quickly made an about-face and revised its ruling.

The government and supreme court are in the hands of the Socialist Party, while the opposition gained control of the legislature in 2015. The supreme court's move last week was denounced both domestically and abroad as a coup, and despite the court's reversal large protests have been held in the capital Caracas this week.

The religious criticized the “lack of autonomy” among the five branches of Venezuela's government: the exective, legislative, judicial, electoral, and citizen branches.

They thus showed their support for the Venezuelan bishops' conference, which on March 31 pointed out that the Supreme Court rulings were “morally unacceptable decisions and therefore reprehensible.”

They also criticized “the indolence of the national government in face of the critical situation our people are going through, demonstrating once again that they're only interested in the struggle to stay in power with no concern for the price or the consequences of ignoring the voice of the people who are  crying out for assistance, food, medicine, security, education and a healthy coexistence in peace.”

“We call on them to take the firm steps necessary to allow the country to return to normality, guaranteeing democratic processes which will redound to the good of the inhabitants of Venezuela,” CONVER stated.

Before concluding, the religious asked God to “bless our suffering people, and may the Virgin of Coromoto, who knows the sentiments of the Venezuelan people, be the mother who accompanies her children who are beaten down with suffering and bewilderment by the destructive policies that simply impoverish the nation in exchange for the unscrupulous enrichment of the politicians of the day.”


Venezuela's socialist government, in power since 1999, is widely blamed for Venezuela's economic crisis. The world's highest inflation rates (expected to pass 1,600 percent his year), price controls, and failed economic policies have resulted in severe shortages of basic necessities like medicines, milk, flour, toilet paper, and other essentials.


The shortages have their roots in policies enacted by Hugo Chavez in 2003 that control the price of nearly 160 products such as flour, milk, oil, and soap. While these products are affordable at the government listed price, they are in short supply and fly off the shelves, ending up on the black market at much higher rates.

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Rome, Italy, Apr 8, 2017 / 01:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday Pope Francis held a special prayer vigil in anticipation of World Youth Day and the 2018 Synod of Bishops, telling youth that they are the voice of the future, and as such, have something to say to the entire Church, including to himself and the bishops.

In his April 8 speech, the Pope noted how the prayer vigil marked the “double-beginning” of the 2018 Synod of Bishops on “Faith, Young People and the Discernment of Vocation,” as well as the upcoming 2019 global World Youth Day encounter in Panama.

The journey of WYD is being taken from “Krakow to Panama, and in the middle the synod,” he said, explaining that the synod is an event “from which no young person should feel excluded.”

“We are holding this synod for Catholic youth, but also youth who come from Catholic associations, so then it’s stronger? No. This synod is a synod for all youth!”

“Young people are the protagonists,” he said, explaining that this includes agnostics, those who are far from the Church or struggle with their faith, and even those who consider themselves to be atheists.

The synod, he stressed, “is a synod for youth, and we all want to hear you. Every young person has something to say to others, has something to say to adults, to priests, to sisters, to bishops and to the Pope! We all need to listen to you.”

Coming on the heels of the 2014-2015 Synod on the Family, the next Synod of Bishops will be held in 2018 and is dedicated primarily to themes surrounding the youth and the struggles they face in contemporary society.

Held at the Roman basilica of Saint Mary Major, the Pope’s prayer vigil takes place ahead of tomorrow’s World Youth Day, titled “The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name,” and which is the first step in preparing for the global 2019 encounter in Panama.

Hosted by the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops and the Vatican office for Laity, Family and Life, the vigil included songs and scripture readings, as well as the testimonies of some youth from the Rome and Lazio regions.

After hearing the testimonies of Alcantarine Franciscan nun Sr Marialisa, 30, who shared the story of finding her vocation, and of 23-year-old Pompeo Barbieri, who was paralyzed at the age of 8 after surviving an earthquake in Puglia in 2002, the Pope stressed the need for youth to be active players in the process.

Recalling what he told youth during the 2016 International WYD in Krakow, Francis said that “it’s terrible to see a young person ready to go into retirement at the age of 20. It’s terrible. And it’s terrible to see young people who spend their lives on their couch.”

What is needed instead are young people who walk, who go out on the street and “move forward beside others, but looking toward the future.”

He pointed to the Gospel ready read during the encounter, which recounted how Mary “went in haste” to her cousin Elizabeth after learning that she was pregnant in her old age.

Like Mary, “the world today needs young people that go with haste, who don’t get tired of going with haste. Of young people who have that vocation of feeling that for them, life offers a mission,” he said.

As he frequently has in the past, the Pope emphasized the importance of experiencing life as a journey, saying that the world and the Church need youth who participate in this journey and who are engaged in the process.

“But what drama there is in the world today,” he said, noting that unfortunately, today “young people are often discarded; they don’t have work, they aren’t given an ideal for their lives, they don’t have education, they lack integration. Many are forced to flee and live as refugees in in other lands.”

“It’s hard to say this, but often times young people are treated as garbage,” he said, explaining that the goal of the synod is to show the world that “young people are here. We are going to Panama to say that we are here, on a journey, we don’t want to be garbage, we have value to give.

However, participating in the journey involves risks and the possibility of making mistakes, he said, but cautioned that if a young person doesn’t take risks, “they have grown old. We must take risks.”

Pointing to how Sr. Marialisa in her testimony said that she had quit going to church after receiving the sacrament of Confirmation, Pope Francis noted that in Italy the sacrament is frequently called the sacrament of “Arrivederci,” meaning “goodbye,” since youth typically stop attending church after.

Part of the reason for this, Francis said, is because many youth don’t know what to do after Confirmation. However, he noted that in her testimony, Sr. Marialista during journey to discovering her vocation, never stopped, even when she went astray, and wasn’t afraid to take risks in trying new things.

“You must prepare the future, the future is in your hands,” he told the youth, explaining that not only those who are organizing the synod, but “the entire Church wants to hear from youth want they think, what they want, what they feel, what they criticize and what they are most drawn to. Everything.”

“The Church needs still needs a spring, and spring is the season of youth,” he said, and invited the youth to begin the journey without fear or shame, but with courage.

Francis noted that many times in life we spend a lot of time asking the question “who am I?” and in the end, we can “spend a lifetime” contemplating the answer. However, the real question we have to ask ourselves, he said, is “for whom am I?”

Just as Mary was able to ask that question, discern that in that moment she was asked to go to her cousin and went, youth today must also ask this question, the Pope said, explaining that this is a task that will give them work for their entire lives.

It’s a task “that makes you think, makes you feel, makes you work,” he said, and stressed the importance of knowing how to speak the “three languages: the language of the head, of the heart and of the hands. And to go forward.”

The synod, he said, is not just a “parlor” to hang out at, and it’s not “just a circus or party for people to come together to speak,” but is rather a place to find “concreteness,” because “in this liquid society, concreteness is needed. And concreteness is your vocation.”

Pope Francis closed his speech by emphasizing to youth, as he often has, the importance of speaking with the grandparents, saying this “bridge of dialogue” between elderly and youth is needed today “more than ever,” because even the elderly still have dreams.

He closed saying that while he doesn’t know if he will be the Pope to meet them in Panama in 2019, “there will be a Pope there and he will ask you if you took time to speak to the elderly, to listen to their dreams, so you can concretely act as prophets in the world today!”

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