Julian Paparella: what I'm
going to tell the Synod of Bishops
 |
| Julian Paparella, auditor at the Synod of Bishops on Young People. |
The Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith and Discernment
opened on Wednesday in the Vatican. One of the young people invited to attend
and to address the Synod talks about his hopes, expectations, and even about
the issues he intends to raise.
By Linda Bordoni
We’ve heard the presentation and listened to the General
Secretary explain its aims, we know that the over 300 Synod Fathers gathered in
the Vatican Synod Hall will produce a final document, and that there are 34
young people who will have the precious opportunity to address the Synod on
“Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment” and even have an impact on
its outcome. But who are they? What are their expectations for the next
three busy weeks? What does it feel like for them to have been chosen to
represent their peers and raise new issues at such a crucial event for the life
of the Church?
I had a word with 25-year-old Julian Paparella from
London Diocese in Ontario, Canada. He followed a degree in biology
with a Masters in Theology at the Institut Catholique de Paris and is currently
working as Campus Minister at McGill University in Montreal helping accompany
students in their faith.
Julian told me of his great surprise upon receiving the
invitation from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Canada to participate in
the Synod:
Julian’s involvement with the Canadian Catholic “Salt &
Light” TV where he has interned and his experience at the Catholic Institute in
Paris were probably the reason, he said, his name came to the fore when the
bishops were asked to select a candidate.
“I was surprised and I hope I’ll continue to be surprised”
he said as he begins this experience, “a great gift” during which he has been
asked to serve the Universal Church.
A voice for young people
“I’m just hopeful that I will be able to serve in this
capacity, as a voice for young people, trying to make the Synod Fathers,
the Holy Father, more sensitive to the current realities and needs of
young people”.
Julian stressed that he will not be presenting his own views
and opinions, but “the questions and the needs of young people, their concerns,
their questions of faith, their lived reality so that the Church can better
accompany young people of today”.
A perennial need to re-adjust
Julian spoke of what he sees as a constant need for the
Church to continue to re-engage with young people and really be in their midst
pointing out that those needs and concerns will constantly evolve.
“With every new generation there will be a need to
re-evaluate, re-understand what young people are living”, how can the Church be
better present to walk with them towards Jesus, he said.
He pointed out that there certainly is a need right now in
the Church for re-adjustment and expressed his appreciation for the fact that
the Pope sees that and has responded with something as significant as a Synod
of Bishops but, he said “I don’t think that need will ever go away”.
Jesus Christ will never be irrelevant
Reiterating his deep belief that the Gospel will never be
irrelevant for young people, Julian recalled the words of Saint Pope John Paul
II when he said “Jesus Christ is the answer to the question posed by every
human heart”.
We all thirst for Jesus Christ, he said, and “whether
or not they know it, all young people are thirsting for his Love.” And so, he
continued, the question is: “how does the Church become an instrument and a
vehicle by which young people are able to encounter this love of God”.
The only questions of possible irrelevance, Julian said,
regard the ways and the means with which the Church is reaching or not reaching
young people.
Clerical sex abuse crisis
Asked whether he feared the current clerical sex abuse
crisis risks creating a breakdown in communication between Church and young
people, Julian revealed that in his work at the Newman Center in Catholic
Chaplaincy this question was raised at the beginning of the year.
“My impression and my approach would be that the lasting
impression of young people towards the Catholic church is not primarily what
they read in blogs or see in the newspaper”, rather what is their experience of
Catholic community in parishes, in communities, in youth groups, and how does
the Church help them encounter Jesus: “that’s what touches them most
profoundly”.
Of course, he said, what we read impacts the public image of
the Church, but young people are not going to Church because of its perfect
public image: they are looking for Christ and if the Church helps them in that,
everything else will fall into place.
Young people, Julian explained, are not going to ignore
grave events such as these, but for someone who has found God in the church, a
scandal such as this is not something that is going to break their faith
“especially if they see the Church is doing something to address in a serious
way these crises”.
Julian’s intervention at the Synod
Giving us a sneak-peek of what he will be saying during his
intervention in the Synod Hall, Julian revealed he will be speaking of the need
for people in the Church to trust young people: “not to see us in need of
correction,” but for the need that pastors, religious, laypeople to look
on young people with love, and to believe there are good things in the lives of
young people: “young people can teach the Church something”.
He was passionate in reiterating his belief that the Church
must empower young people “helping them become witness and not just recipients
of faith”.
Expectations for the Synod
“I hope this synod will help the Church realize its need to
meet young people where they are at and realize that God is already with young
people where they are at” so why not the Church?
It is crucial he said that the Church learn to better
accompany young people “where they are at”, walk with them “where they are at”
and become more attuned to that, and to understand the relevance of the Church
in the life of young people, and the fact that “the Church cannot just expect
young people to be where the Church wants them to be as they walk towards Jesus
Christ”.
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