LORETO, Italy, AUG. 23, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Some 300,000 Italian youth are readying themselves for a meeting with Benedict XVI this weekend.
Youth will arrive to Loreto on foot after meeting in dioceses of the area in smaller groups. The Pontiff's arrival is set for Saturday afternoon. The following day he will celebrate an open-air Mass for the young people and then give the youth a missionary mandate.
The meeting with the Pope is the culminating event in the first part of the Italian bishops' three-year project to give pastoral emphasis to youth ministry.
The project aims to increase young people's involvement in the mission of the Church.
The first year, which will culminate with the Holy Father's trip to Loreto, was dedicated to "listening to the world of youth."
The second year's highlight will be World Youth Day 2008, to be held next July in Australia.
Finally, the pastoral year 2008-2009 will be dedicated to the "cultural and social dimension of evangelization," and address the issues of a Christian, personal and communal testimony in the context of the great cultural and social questions.
Bishop Giuseppe Betori, secretary of the Italian bishops' conference, said: "The Italian bishops have defined the young people as a talent of the Church. In the words of the Gospel, this expression is both something positive and something that demands commitment."
"The Church contemplates the new generation without reductive pessimism or naive optimism," said the secretary.
Youth, he added, "need an educational relationship with the adult community to be able to develop all the positive they have within themselves."
ZE07082308 - 2007-08-23