The Youth is the Present of the Church
Upon seeing the large groups of young men and women walking the streets of Rome during the World Youth Day in Jubilee Year 2000 one of the bishops remarked that "The future of the Church is here!"
Pope John Paul II corrected his colleague. He told the bishops present that "the youth is not the future of the Church. If they are the future, they won’t be there anymore when the future comes" because they would have grown into adults already. Rather, the youth is, as JP II believes, the present, they are now, they are today!
That is why he instituted the World Youth Days. He believes in the youth and he knows that they must be given the opportunity to contribute in the mission of evangelization because they also are members of the Church. They have that vocation to holiness also and the vocation to bring others to Christ in the various milieus that they are in.
The youth has a lot to contribute to the work of evangelization. If formation will be seriously given to young Catholics there would be less troubled marriages, less cases of priests and religious going out of their vocations, less Catholics seeking the "true faith" in other religions, less cases of graft and corruption in the secular world, and more people aspiring for holiness.
The Church must take into serious consideration these words of the great Pope who led the Church into the Third Millennium. The youth must be considered as today, now, the present. Their contribution cannot be disregarded. Though they are inexperienced and needs formation, they must be given their particular roles and responsibilities already and not just relegated into the sidelines called upon only when there is a need for messengers, liaison personnel or manpower during Church activities!
