“Young witnesses of hope”: Santa Marta will welcome the youth of the Colombian Caribbean

From August 30 to September 1, hundreds of young people will gather in the Diocese of Santa Marta (Colombia), to celebrate the first Regional Youth Day – Caribbean Region, with the motto “Young witnesses of hope.”

In a note shared with ACI Prensa, the Youth Ministry of the Diocese of Santa Marta indicates that the call responds to the call of Pope Francis, who in his post-synodal exhortation Christ lives points out that “Youth Ministry can only be synodal, that is, forming a journey together.”

Following the invitation of the Holy Father, the Youth Ministry, guided by the Bishop of Santa Marta, Mons. José Mario Bacci Trespalacios, has already been working in 2024 with the motto “The mission calls us”, to revolutionize “youthful hearts” and thus “the young people of the diocese can find their true identity in Christ and their call to holiness.”

Regarding attendance at the first Regional Youth Day – Caribbean Region, it is expected that about 500 young people will arrive, both from the local Church and from the dioceses of Montería, Barranquilla, Riohacha, Valledupar, Cartagena among others.

Regarding the motto “Young witnesses of hope,” the note explains that its purpose is to respond to “a world full of noise and distractions,” in which “there is a people of young people who are full of life, longing to be participants in the great civilization of love.”

To this end, the event “will have training meetings, spaces for listening to the various realities and problems that arise in youth, missionary meetings, a concert in the Pearl Bay of America, and most importantly, a constant face-to-face face with Jesus Eucharist.”

The Youth Ministry remembers that in 2013 the Diocese of Santa Marta hosted the First Diocesan Regional Youth Meeting with the motto “Young disciples of Jesus. Living faith in today’s world!”, which was attended by 30 to 50 young people per diocese.

“In these regional meetings, which were held periodically, the priest delegates met with the youth secretaries of the different regions,” the note indicates.

In that sense, in dialogue with ACI Prensa, Andrea Pabón, communications coordinator of the Youth Ministry of Santa Marta, explained that the difference between these events and the event at the end of August is that this one seeks to place emphasis “on the call to live a WYD in the particular Churches, as the Pope requested.”

“The previous meetings were a little more about organization and forwarding new proposals,” and although the regional day “will also have those spaces, in this one we will also go out to the streets, we will not stay inside, but we will show that ‘presence’ of young people in different parts of the city.”