506. The Jubilee of Youth 2025:Criticisms

 

Un gruppo di giovani a Tor Vergata per il Giubileo dei Giovani credits: (@Vatican Media)

“You can please some of the people all of the time; and all of the people some of the time but you can’t please all of the people all of the time“ (John Lydgate 1370 – 1450)

That was exactly my reaction early next morning after the jubilee of youth  when some of the radio commentators woke me up to say it was a gathering of cute, spoiled brats without a single backbone in their spine to demonstrate against the real causes of the world.

This wasn’t any amateur radio station – it was RAI 3, the official state radio of Italy. Fortunately, the radio announcer kept in check those radio listeners who phoned in lashing out indiscriminately against the million of youth who had gathered all over the world, saying these youth had been manipulated by the Catholic Church and extinguished all kinds of guarantee of secular values.

This million or so of youths slept, ate, washed, laughed, sang and yes, why not, prayed, for a whole week with Pope Leo presiding practically every moment, even for the Saturday night vigil where very little sleep took place since they were up and kicking at the first light of dawn in the company of Leo driving around the camps in his Pope-mobile.

No one asked them to do it. No one forced them to come, they did so joyfully because this is what those youth wanted – to show that despite the secular world pulling them in all kinds of unhealthy directions, like terrorism, drug taking and violence of all sorts, they wanted to say, Hey look, we don’t want all that, we want to work, live and integrate in harmony and peace.

That to me was quite the opposite to what the radio listeners claimed, of being spoiled brats, without any lack of initiative and tied to their mother’s apron strings. For a whole week they fended for themselves, they ate washed, slept  under an open sky, in very rustic and basic conditions, certainly nothing compared to the comfort of a soft bed, warm meals, a proper toilet and clean water – but the beauty of it all is that no-one asked them to do it.

Maybe those radio listeners prefer the youth of today to be like those of the 60s and 70s, the times I lived through - the years of led where the Red Brigades were the protagonists of violence and orchestrated hundreds of killings. There were no jubilee of youth in those days where secularism and it’s bitter fruits were fully guaranteed, just what those listeners advocated.

Yes, why not, let’s get rid of those peace-loving youths and go back to the profanity of the Red Brigades and terrorism. After all, what does it matter if a million of youth from 146 countries have for a whole week, cried out in peace, harmony and joy, to the whole world that they believe in God?