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ADDRESS OF
YOUNG PEOPLE OF MALTA AND GOZO TO HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT
XVI |
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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.
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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.
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1st speaker: Your Holiness, |
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Your
Holiness, what must we do? |
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2nd speaker: Your Holiness, |
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I speak on
behalf of those young people who are on a journey of faith
and are close to the Church.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Your
Holiness, what must we do? |
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3rd speaker:
Your Holiness,
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We are a
young couple about to get married, and we speak on behalf of
young people whose vocation is married life and family.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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4th speaker: Your Holiness,
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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? |
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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.
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