A spiritual thermometer: from the emblematic BMJ 2000 to the jubilee of young people with Leo XIV

In full effervescence of the jubilee of young people, Rome has once again become the spiritual capital of the new generations. With an overflowing energy, thousands of young people from 146 countries have flooded with their joy the streets of the Italian capital, within the framework of the Jubileo de la Esperanza.

The jubilee of young people has a lot to do with the World Youth Days (WYD) that plant their roots in the International Year of Youth, proclaimed by the United Nations (UN) in 1985. It was then that San Juan Paul II perceived the need for a space for the meeting of faith for young people and summoned them in Rome for the celebration of Palm Sunday.

The answer was immense: 300 thousand young people dispersed through the churches of the eternal city to pray, receive catechesis and celebrate faith in the Plaza de San Pedro.

That enthusiasm – which today felt again – motivated the Polish Pope to formally institute WYD in the late 1985. From 1986 he was held annually at the diocesan level and, since 1987, international editions alternated every two or three years.

A thermometer of Catholic Youth Spirituality

These appointments have always been a thermometer of Catholic youth spirituality. From its beginnings with San Juan Pablo II to this Jubilee edition with Pope Leo XIV, millions of young people have responded to God’s call in very different contexts.

But, How has the spiritual experience of young people changed for 25 years?

The World Youth Day of the year 2000, held in Rome, marked a before and after. It was an indelible milestone: young people, moved by the call of the Polish Pope, felt summoned to be “Centinels of Alba”, willing to announce a new millennium with Christian hope.

They were other times: the world lived the end of a decade marked by the optimism of the new millennium, the rise of globalization and the beginning of the digital revolution.

Today’s young people “do not accept prefabricated responses”

Many of the pilgrims who participate in this jubilee of young people were born after 2000 and “do not accept prefabricated responses”, as Review Sor Marie de l’Assomption, Dominican of the Holy Spirit and general secretary of the Center of Recherche et

“They seek authentic, lived, embodied in reality and based on the coherence of the people who practice,” explains in this regard the responsible for this initiative, founded in November 2020 by Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

Culture of certainties against current uncertainty

The young people of the 2000s grew in a culture with certain certainties. On the other hand, today they live in a panorama where questions abound: the meaning of life, identity, work future, climate change, social justice.

“The reality of this moment is that everything is more uncertain. Young people have gone through several crises. On the other hand, in 2000 they had not even lived the 11S. Since then the wars have multiplied, they have lived one or two world economic crises and a pandemic,” says the main researcher of the group “Young people in transition” of the Culture and Society Institute of the University of Navarra, Javier Manglano.

Therefore, they live a context of greater uncertainty about their future. However, they are still waiting for them to be proposed to follow Christ, although “they want demanding answers,” says the French religious. “They need to find adults who present a testimony of joy, a real and coherent commitment,” he adds.

Of obedience to co -responsibility

Another key change is the answer to a more divided world. In 2000, the WYD was a symbol of Catholic unity after the fall of ideological blocks. Today, in the midst of a global climate of political polarization, tensions and cultural challenges, young people ask above all to be heard.

“Young people want to be the protagonists of the Church, not only receivers. They ask for coherence and truth. And, although sometimes they are critical, they love the Church when they feel it as a living house and body,” explains Fredo Alfredo Tedesco, responsible for the youth pastoral of the Diocese of Rome and partly organizing the jubilee of young people.

In this sense, synodality – intended as a specific invitation to each Christian discovering and lives their mission in the church – is a fertile path for that listening space.

“Pope Francis constantly repeated that everything baptized is a missionary disciple. Each of us is called by the Lord to his own mission and that is why I must pray to the Holy Spirit and ask: ‘Lord, what do you expect from me at the service of the Church and my brothers?’

However, all this must bloom in the midst of a growing secularization and a notable decrease in religious practice and public relevance of ecclesial institutions. This process – especially intense in Europe and North America – has cornered religion that is no longer seen as a common cultural pillar, but has become an almost residual phenomenon.

As details the recent study of the Center for Studies, Training and Social Analysis of the San Pablo CEU Foundation (CEU-COFAS) in the United States and in Europe the Catholic Church.

This is clearly reflected in how relationships are lived. “Today’s young people have seen more broken families today. They have more doubts about family training and their future ability to find a stable couple or marry, have children,” explains the sociologist of the University of Navarra.

And he adds: “Given that lack of styles, patterns, so to speak, of good behavior we have around, many young people end up losing meaning.”

Thus it becomes increasingly difficult to “talk about faith and from God to young people because they are full of prejudices,” says the Italian influencer Nicola Camporiondo. In any case, this 25 -year -old boy warns that the real problem is that many young people today have not known “never in depth the faith that has been transmitted to them (often in a arguable way) and because they have never tried to go further and live the ecclesial environments.”

“Like fish out of water “

Camporionndo, which like many others announced today to God on social networks, also appreciates that many other Catholics feel, “like fish out of water in an increasingly remote and hostile world towards the Church.”

“Many are even mocked for it. Therefore, it is increasingly necessary to break these mental schemes loaded with negatives,” he says.

In this work to undo the clichés of what it means to follow Christ, it is clear that Catholic influencers are fundamental. “We have to offer these young people a solid and radical proposal of Christianity,” he emphasizes, on the other hand, the Spanish influencer Abel de Jesusone of the most recognized faces of the digital apostolate in the Hispanic field.

They still have “thirst for absolute” as 25 years ago

It coincides with Sor Marie de l’Ssomption, who says that today, as 25 years ago, young people “are thirst for absolute.”

“If they are proposed to follow Christ, everyone gets up. Perhaps in the previous years the radicality of the Gospel has not been sufficiently proposed. It was thought that young people could not reflect, that young people just wanted to have fun effortlessly,” concludes the French religious.

While languages, accents and forms have changed, there is something that has not been lost: the experience of feeling loved by God and called to transform the world from the Gospel.