Cardinal Augusto dos Santos Marto avoids confirming a possible visit by Pope Francis to Santiago de Compostela on the occasion of the Jacobean Year
Cardinal António Augusto dos Santos Marto, Pope Francis’s special envoy for the European Youth Pilgrimage 2022, considers these days a “clear signal” that there is a new generation that “brings restlessness” that wants to build a world “more happy and fraternal” and that “they are neither resigned nor anesthetized by the banalities of life.
This is how the Bishop Emeritus of Fátima has expressed himself at a press conference in which he has analyzed and shared his experience at the PEJ 2022, which he already arrived at last Wednesday and from which he has been “impressed” by the atmosphere and the “joy that young people have brought to the streets of Santiago”.
“When we talk about a disbandment of young people in the Church, it is comforting to see that there are still many who are moved by faith,” he commented.
Just as he did this morning in the speech he gave in the church of Santiago De Bonaval, where he was received by authorities and pilgrims, the cardinal stressed that this pilgrimage represents “a privileged moment of encounter for young people” in a context of “particular historical and cultural relevance”.
“We live in a very fast world, without moments to reflect. The pilgrimage attracts young people because it is a path of spirituality that provides an opportunity to find themselves. It is an interior pilgrimage, not just an exterior one”, he explained.
In this line, he has pointed to the “critical” moment that humanity is facing, with a pandemic and a war at the gates of Europe, as well as the global consequences of these two phenomena, which “reveal a world with many wounded and many wounds “.
YOUNG PEOPLE WITH A CONSCIENCE
Faced with this, he reflected, young people are challenged to “become aware of the problems, the hopes and the anxieties”. “This pilgrimage is a clear sign that young people want to build a more beautiful, happy and fraternal world; that they are not resigned, that they are not anesthetized by the banality or superficiality of life,” Marto defended.
This is precisely, he stressed, the message that the Pope has transmitted to him for the YEP, where he has also emphasized the need to “reform the way in which the Church is in the world”. “That it be open and welcoming, that no one is left behind or left out,” he has stressed.
About this, they have asked the papal envoy about the abandonment of religion by young people, something he has blamed on the European context. “Europe is showing signs of tiredness at a cultural and political level, but also religiously. At this time, you can no longer be a Christian by tradition, be it family or cultural,” he commented. But the ones we have will be because of a greater conviction of faith,” he said.
The Cardinal also considers that the YEP has been celebrated in a “providential” moment and that it constitutes “a stage of preparation not only from the temporal point of view, but also spiritual” for the World Youth Day that will be celebrated in Lisbon in 2023.
VISIT OF THE POPE TO SANTIAGO
Finally, the pontifical delegate has avoided answering whether Pope Francis will finally visit Santiago de Compostela on the occasion of the Holy Year and has suggested that this is a question that should be asked of the Supreme Pontiff.