The Youth delegation, together with young staff and volunteers of Caritas from around the world, have met with Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Alistair Dutton during the World Youth Day festival in Lisbon. This year, Caritas organised a range of activities as part of the official World Youth Day program for pilgrims attending the biggest youth festival of the Catholic Church.
“We could not do what we do in the world without all of you so thank you for being part of this and please continue to keep that love of Caritas alive,” Mr. Dutton shared with over 70 young Caritas staff and volunteers at the Meet-Up in the Fundação EDP. Caritas Portugal Secretary General, João Pereira, also attended the event to greet the youth and Maria Nyman, Secretary General of Caritas Europa, also sent her greetings via video message.
In celebration of the 6-day World Youth Day festival, the Caritas youth delegation organised a booth at the “City of Joy” vocations centre where pilgrims were given the opportunity to write a postcard to Pope Francis, an “Integral Ecology Challenge” scavenger hunt, as well as a Caritas Youth Meet-Up for young Caritas staff and volunteers.
The Integral Ecology Challenge was held at the Fundação EDP gave pilgrims the opportunity to see how Caritas works in order to serve the vulnerable and care for creation. During this event, pilgrims were also invited to participate in an art activity and discussion groups to exchange ideas on how to animate Caritas’ mission in the Church and in the world. “Through Caritas we learned how to set out to help and to feel the joy of helping people,” said a young staff member at the Meet-Up, who assists the elderly through initiatives organised by Caritas Jerusalem.
Caritas Jerusalem, one of 162 Member Organisations of Caritas Internationalis, gifted pilgrims with 170,000 rosaries made by local wood workshop workers in Bethlehem, with the hope pilgrims will use these rosaries to pray, and to pray especially for peace in the Holy Land. “These rosaries changed the lives of many Christian Palestinians,” said a Caritas Jerusalem representative at World Youth Day.
On the final day of the “City of Joy Vocations” Fair, Caritas Internationalis Officer for Promoting Youth Leadership, Rebecca Rathbone, shared her testimony. “Young people are so important to Caritas and to the Church because they have the profound ability to help us to dream and see what’s possible, and what we – as Caritas, as the church, and as citizens of this planet – are capable of,” she said.