The Philippines is getting ready
for "The Year of Youth" 2019
 |
| Palm Sunday being observed by Philippines Christians.- AFP |
“Year of Youth” 2019 is a part of a 9-year preparation for
the celebration of the 5th centenary of the arrival of Christianity in 2021.
By Robin Gomes
The Philippine Catholic Church will be
celebrating its “Year of Youth” 2019 in the wake of the
world Synod of Bishops on young people that is concluding in
the Vatican on Sunday.
The October 3-28 Synod of Bishops has as its theme, “Young
People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment.”
Speaking to Vatican’s Fides news agency, the Episcopal
Commission on Youth of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the
Philippines (CBCP), said that the "Year of Youth 2019" will
officially kick off with the feast of Christ the King, November 25, 2018, but
the solemn opening ceremony will be held on December 2 in Manila.
Preparations
The Commission has invited its network of 86 diocesan youth
ministry leaders and leaders of national youth organizations to "take part
in the general organization and to give their contribution, including the
creation of the official logo and theme song", Eva Mae Famillaran Palmero,
a young Catholic told Fides.
"The celebration of the Year of Youth will be an
occasion for experience, sharing, prayer,proclamation of God's love for
others. It will be an opportunity to become more firm
in faith ", said Jovanie Bacolcol, a youth leader and animator.
500 years of evangelization
The Year of Youth is part of a 9-year preparation for 2021
when the Philippine Church will celebrate 5th centenary of the
arrival of the Gospel in the archipelago.
The preparation kicked off in 2013, with each year dedicated
to a specific theme related to the faith and new evangelization.
2018 was dedicated to the clergy and the religious.
“We look forward with gratitude and joy to March 16, 2021,
the fifth centenary of the coming of Christianity to our beloved land,” the
Philippine bishops had written in a 2012 pastoral letter, ahead of the 9-year
preparation.
First Christians
According to the bishops, the first Mass on Filipino soil
was celebrated in Limasawa Island on Easter Sunday on March 31, 1521, and the
first Filipino Christians were Humabon and Hara Amihan, who were
baptized Carlos and Juana respectively.
The Spanish missionaries brought the Christian faith to the
Philippines 500 years ago and today the nation is home to Asia’s largest
Catholic population. Out of 110 million inhabitants, 80% are Catholics.
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