By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, April 15, 2019: The Youth Office of Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life will hold the International Youth Forum in Rome as a part of the implementation phase of the recent General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on youth.
The June 19-22 meeting “is a follow up of the synod on youth to see and know what different countries have done in last six months. Three persons from India are going to attend it and I am one of them,” Percival Holt, National Youth President of the Indian Catholic Youth Movement under the Conference of Catholic Bishops’ of India, told Matters India.
The 25-year old Holt, who holds a master’s degree in biotechnology, was one of the five Indian participants of the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican in last October in Rome.
The other two Indian delegates are Ms. Jesvita Princy Quadras and Becaremeo Nongtdu.
Quadras from Mangalore, national president of YCS / YSM India, is completing her BA in Journalism and Psychology from St. Aloysius College, Mangalore this year.
Nongtdu from Jowai is the regional president of North East Region, ICYM (Indian Catholic Youth Movement) which is the largest premier Catholic youth movement in the country. He is pursuing his PhD in Philosophy from North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya.
About 250 youth from all over the world are expected to attend the June meeting.
Some new people who have not been to Rome for Synod and pre-synod are likely to take part in it. Some participants were the auditors (listeners) at the October Synod, including Holt.
Asked on the significance of the forthcoming meeting, Holt said, “It is important to see and know if such an important synod is being taken seriously by Bishops’ conferences around the world and international lay associations, considering the amount of efforts, money and time put into the synod.”
Quoting Pope Francis, Holt said, “The synod is not the culmination of a process but just a major intermediate step. It will continue, it has to disseminate and reach the grassroots to nourish the future countenance of the church.”
Holt received an invitation from Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery, that read: “I invite you to share your experience of the Synod with other young people from all over the world and to continue with them on this path.”
“We ask you to come prepared and to participate actively, so that once you return to your country you will be able to communicate and pass on to others what you have experienced and received,” the cardinal wrote.
The International Youth Forum will be part of the implementation phase of the recent General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
The specific objective of the post-Synod meeting will be the application of the Synod proposals seen from a youth pastoral ministry perspective.
“Our Dicastery wishes to carry forward and give form to the wide-ranging process of pastoral conversion contained in the theme of ‘Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment,’ a topic that was relaunched very recently by the Holy Father at World Youth Day in Panama,” the cardinal said.