Young People Who Can Change the World

We have just lived through, in Madrid, one of the World Youth Days with the greatest impact on world public opinion. Very few people thought that in a country like Spain (where there have been attempts to remove God from schools and from social life) there would be such an impressive demonstration of faith as the one seen during those days. The work of the 24,000 volunteers (the vast majority Spanish) showed that Spain is a great country and that its Christian roots have not been erased, because there are many families who, with admirable courage, have gone against the current, defending their faith and raising their children in it.

The atmosphere of World Youth Day is something that cannot be described in words. Many people (including Spanish atheists) commented on Twitter about the impression made on them by those polite, happy, cheerful young people with great faith and hope. Every time you think about the number of people who attended (2.2 million), you ask yourself: how is it possible that, well into the 21st century, a historic event of this kind took place in a country where some have tried to remove God from people’s lives? The example all those young people from around the world gave was incredible. Many of us shed tears when we saw young Catholics from China or Africa showing their flags, proud of their faith and happier than anyone, when religious persecution in those countries is appalling.

And something that makes us Venezuelans very happy is knowing that the largest delegation from the American continent, in terms of numbers, was Venezuela’s. And how proud we felt when we saw Carlos José Flores Freites (of the Caracas Youth Ministry) represent the American continent alongside four other young people from the other continents! We are convinced that the Venezuelan Church will have a great deal to do with a great future for our country and for our Holy Catholic Church.

Seeing young people who had gone days without proper rest (because they were sleeping on the floor) so cheerful and energetic has no explanation. Seeing the Pope meet 1,000 seminarians and 1,700 young women religious who leave everything to give themselves to God in the 21st century has no human explanation! Seeing a vigil in a tremendous storm, where the Pope got drenched, laughed like a little child and said “I’m not moving from here,” has no explanation. Seeing those young people show such remarkable happiness and recollection during Eucharistic Adoration and at the Mass at Cuatro Vientos, after hours outdoors without sleep, has no human explanation. Only Benedict XVI’s farewell words explain it. He said he was leaving Spain happy and grateful to everyone, but above all to God, who had allowed him to celebrate a Youth Day so full of grace and emotion, so charged with dynamism and hope; that the celebration of faith we had shared allows us to look ahead with great trust in the providence that guides the Church through the seas of history, which is why she remains young and full of life even in hard times; that this is the work of the Holy Spirit, who makes Jesus Christ present in the hearts of the young of every age; and that young people respond eagerly when they are offered, sincerely and truthfully, the encounter with Jesus Christ, the only redeemer of humanity.

Today more than ever we must intensify our prayers for all the young people who were there and for so many others who wanted to go and couldn’t, so that each day they may draw closer to God, live committed to their faith and pass it on, under the care of their exemplary guides. Let us pray for our priests, our bishops and our Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, that God may give them the wisdom and strength to continue the wonderful work they have done in our Venezuelan Church in recent years. Let us pray fervently for the Holy Father’s intentions, that God may give him good health and strength, so that we may have him with us for many more years and be able to enjoy and put into practice his wise and valuable teachings.

All that remains is to give great thanks to God for these days of spiritual oasis we have lived, and we know Jesus Christ must have been radiant with happiness when he saw so many young people who want to follow the path He left us, the only one that can lead us to true happiness here on earth and then in our final homeland, Heaven.

Luis Felipe and María Denisse de Capriles

Directors of Fundación Entre Líneas