World Youth Day: a Jewish Reaction

David Hatchwell Altaras

It seems that last month's World Youth Day celebration in Madrid was well received by more than the world's Catholic youth. David Hatchwell, vice president and spokesman for the 10,000-member Jewish Community of Madrid, was enthusiastic in calling it an "absolute success."

Hatchwell was interviewed by ZENIT, an international news agency based in Rome that provides news on the Catholic Church. In the course of the interview, he said some interesting things; for example:

"Those of us who think the same things must be together. Catholics, as other groups, have the right to express themselves, even if there are protests against this. They have the right to believe what they believe, and for this reason we have this closeness, because we Jews know very well what it is to be vilified. We understand what it is to be de-legitimatized, and I live it constantly in my flesh.

"I am very sensitive, and not only am I concerned but I am annoyed by the tendencies to de-legitimize people. One can be in disagreement with someone, but attacks do not have to happen on groups in an unjustified manner and out of context. In this connection our support of an event such as WYD is clear. I rejoice that this WYD was held and hence the proximity with the event."

When asked why he was so pleased with World Youth Day, Hatchwell stated:

"Without a doubt this trip of the Pope was an absolute success. It is the greatest event of the last decades: I don't remember something like it. To see Madrid with all kinds of young people on the streets -- people that you can tell are very healthy, with positive energy -- has been incredible, and a delight to see it. The evaluation can only be positive.

"In the multitude of events that succeeded one another, it was demonstrated every day that what was wanted was a very powerful spiritual moment, and this happened."

Hatchwell was also enthusiastic about the message delivered by Pope Benedict XVI to the hundreds of thousands of young people from throughout the world:

"Without a doubt the message was very important, especially the reconnection with a series of values. This appeal transcends a specific creed; they are not just Christian messages, but universal.

"The Pope asked young people to be very courageous in their convictions. We are before a very profound ethical relativism, with a tendency to rob value of the things many people have as basic principles of their education. In this we are totally in agreement with the Pope: Values are necessary in a modern society to confront relativism and to continue believing in the moral convictions that people desire.

"Another striking aspect of the message was that we not live in the tyranny of the individual, there is no absolute I, but that collective common spiritual values and service are necessary today...Jews and Christians share core common values. Jesus was a Jew, and so were the first Christians; hence the shared values that without a doubt continue to be the same."  

To read the complete interview with David Hatchwell, click here: A Jewish Reaction to WYD

Hatchwell has been instrumental in fighting the ongoing campaign in Europe that not only attacks Israel and denies its very right to exist, but has also encouraged attacks on Jews in general. It's a campaign of pure hatred and is backed, encouraged and bankrolled by Iran and its two puppet terrorist organizations in the Middle East, Hizbullah and Hamas. Like all campaigns founded on hatred, it has spawned a growing number of physical attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions throughout Europe. Even Europe's mainstream media and, unfortunately, too many of its political leaders, are either indifferent to what has been happening or passively support the campaign.

Interesting, isn't it? Believing Christians are coming to understand that attacks on and hatred of Jews are also attacks on Christianity. The Jews not only preserved God's revealed Word and kept it intact over the centuries so it could be received by the Church, but they also kept themselves, God's Chosen People, intact. And from them would come the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, who was born, lived and died a Jew. To hate the Jews is to hate Jesus, the Word of God Himself, and His bride, the Church.

As the world becomes increasingly hostile to revealed truth and to those who believe in the one, true God, faithful Jews and Christians are realizing that they must come together and support and defend each other and their shared Judeo-Christian values. And while persecution is certainly not welcome, it's important for the faithful to understand that God always brings good from evil to those who love HIm. Persecution brings strength to the weak, and puts the spotlight on the truth, pushing the lies into the surrounding darkness. The truth will always triumph, and it was fitting that Pope Benedict made this point on several occasions during his time in Madrid.

I was particularly moved by Pope Benedict's comments during the welcoming ceremony when he stated:

"World Youth Day brings us a message of hope like a pure and youthful breeze, with rejuvenating scents which fill us with confidence before the future of the Church and the world. Of course, there is no lack of difficulties. There are tensions and ongoing conflicts all over the world, even to the shedding of blood. But, with all my heart, I say again to you young people: let nothing and no one take away your peace; do not be ashamed of the Lord. He did not spare himself in becoming one like us and in experiencing our anguish so as to lift it up to God, and in this way he saved us."

For full coverage of Pope Benedict's homilies and addresses during World Youth Day, go directly to the Vatican's website: Apostolic Journey to Madrid

World Youth Day - Madrid

Popemobile makes its way through the crowd

"But I am not the star, I am only the vicar. I point beyond myself to the Other who is in our midst." -- Pope Benedict XVI on the eve of World Youth Day

I'm a little late commenting on World Youth Day, that spectacular gathering in Madrid of faithful youth from all over the world that took place August 16-21, but life's events conspired against me. Our long-planned trip to Iowa to celebrate the wedding of the son of our good friends and then Diane's surgery this past week monopolized much of my time. As it turned out, because we were on the road during most of World Youth Day, I didn't even get to watch the events on TV. I did catch a few reports on the mainstream media and was once again amazed at how they willfully distort religious news. Almost two million young people come together to celebrate their faith and the media coverage I saw focused on a few hundred protesters. My, my...how so many in the media despise the Church. Not to worry, though. Were not the last words of Jesus to His apostles, "And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” [Mt 28:20]?

Young people greet the pope in Madrid

In recent days, as I reviewed some of the coverage after the fact, the joy and faith of these young folks was so apparent. Joyfully, singing and waving the flags of their homelands, they filled the streets and the squares of Madrid, and when they greeted Pope Benedict XVI they seemed almost to burst in their enthusiasm.

A few years before he became Pope Benedict XVI, I met the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on a Roman street not far from St. Peter's Square, and had the opportunity to speak with him for a few minutes. He is a very unassuming man, a rather small, shy man. I expect he's more at home in the role of professor than as Vicar of Christ, the leader of Christ's Church on earth. But setting aside his personal desires, he responded to the call of the Holy Spirit and these young people responded to him with the kind of exuberance you'd think they reserved only for rock stars.

What brought these young people together? What could possibly draw so many of today's teens and twenty-somethings to Madrid to celebrate their faith, the faith of the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church? Why would hundreds of thousands of the world's youth look to the Catholic Church for direction when everyone who is anyone knows that the Catholic Church is a repressive organization determined to impose its medieval morality and ancient rites on a progressive world? And why would these same young people express such enthusiasm for this old man, this defender of the Faith, a faith rejected by so many of their parents?

Pope Benedict greets the youth of the world

Interesting questions, aren't they? And what's more interesting is that today's faithful youth seem also to have rejected the liberal, relativistic version of their faith espoused by so many of my generation. Instead, they have turned to the Church and its magisterial teachings in search of the "permanent things", the unchanging truths that provide a stable anchor in this unstable world. They look at the world we have handed them and they say, "Thanks, but no thanks. You have given us a world that ignores its holy roots, a world cluttered with material goodies, but void of real meaning."

Do you remember that TV show from the 80s called "Fame"? It featured the students attending a high school in New York City devoted to the performing arts. The show's theme song included the following lyrics:

I'm gonna live forever. I'm gonna learn how to fly.
I feel it comin' together. People will see me and cry.
I'm gonna make it to heaven. Light up the sky like a flame.
I'm gonna live forever. Baby, Remember my name.

The words point to a human desire, one that is especially evident in the young, for something greater than what the world seems to offer most of us. "I want to live forever..." are words that seek immortality, but these children of the 80s could see their fulfillment only in the fame that comes from being a celebrity, a false form of eternal life, one that crumbles into dust along with everything else in the material world. And yet, tucked in among the lyrics is the statement, "I'm gonna make it to heaven...", words that betray what the human heart seeks above all else, true eternal life, the happiness that comes only from being in the very presence of God.

Kurt Cobain

I believe many of today's youth have come to recognize this. They see the unhappiness and despair of those who were promised so much by the world. They see their celebrities, their supposed heroes, the ones who "made it", and they see them self-destruct right before their eyes. The despair of a Kurt Cobain is very real when he says, "The finest day I ever had was when tomorrow never came", and then kills himself.

Or they watch a talented Amy Winehouse dissolve into absurdity on a series of public stages as she is eventually overcome by drugs and alcohol.

They see these finders of fame and others like them and ask, "Is that what comes from material success? Is that what I want?"

Amy Winehouse

The wise ones among today's youth are searching for something that transcends the ephemeral pleasures offered by the world, and in doing so they have turned to what their ancestors bequeathed them, a bequest long ignored but retrievable. They have found the Faith, and in the discovering they can hardly believe the joy it has brought them. For now their lives have real meaning.

Interestingly, while these thousands of joyful young people were gathering in Madrid, many of England's youth were engaging in a collective temper tantrum, burning and looting and assaulting. Given so much in the way of material benefits, they simply want more. Pampered, not required to work for anything, continually given whatever they demand, they are continually dissatisfied. Since their society has rejected Christianity and by extension its moral values, why should they feel any need to adhere to a morality deemed obsolete by their parents?

Young looters in London

If we're not careful, we can see such increasingly common riotous behavior and believe it to be the future. We, too, can be led to despair for the world. Don't let this happen to you. Remember, the world was changed once before when twelve men were sent out by Jesus Christ to evangelize a troubled planet. From a human perspective the odds against their success could not have been higher, but they carried with them the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will not be denied. In the same way, today's young evangelists have been sent from Madrid to bring Jesus Christ's message of salvation to an even more troubled world. And they, too, will carry the gifts of the Spirit. They, too, will be instruments of God's grace in the lives of those they encounter. Pray for them always.

This is why I never despair, regardless of the chaos that seems to rule the lives of so many in our world today. These young people who joined Pope Benedict in Madrid have the kind of faith that moves mountains. They are natural evangelists for they approach their world unafraid, filled with the confidence that comes only from the Holy Spirit. We old folks can learn from them. One 18-year-old American girl in Madrid, Hannah Davidson from Kansas, told a reporter, "My faith is definitely stronger and I am going to promote it a lot more." Simple words but can you think of a better way to say it? I can't.

A "Young" Pope Benedict XVI

As Pope Benedict told this global gathering of youth during one of his homilies,

"They will wonder what the secret of your life is and they will discover that the rock which underpins the entire building and upon which rests your whole existence is the very person of Christ, your friend, brother and Lord, the Son of God incarnate, who gives meaning to all the universe."

This call to evangelize, then, must be realized not simply through our words, but through the lives we lead as Christians. As the pope stated, "They will wonder..." It is Jesus Christ, this light of our lives, that must shine through the gloom of the world, calling others to want to know the secret of our Christian joy. It's an open secret, one that the Church has preached and taught for 2,000 years.

Here's a brief video on World Youth Day in Madrid. I think you'll enjoy it.

A few days after World Youth Day, the pope, speaking to a group of his former students, apologized for the many Catholics who have ignored the call by Jesus to evangelize. "We who have known God since we were young, must ask forgiveness...we bring people so little of the light of His face, because from us comes so little certainty that He exists, that He is there, and that He is the Great One that everyone is waiting for." This, of course, echoes the pope's frequent call for radical Christian discipleship, repeating the call issued by Jesus again and again in the Gospels. It is a call we cannot ignore.

God's peace...

World Youth Day in Madrid

This year's World Youth Day -- which should really be called World Youth Week because of its length -- will be celebrated in Madrid, Spain less than two months from now. Millions of young pilgrims are scheduled to arrive in Madrid on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, August 25 (or earlier); the week will conclude with a papal Mass at 9 a.m. on Sunday, August 21st.

I am always amazed by the huge numbers of young people from all over the world who attend these World Youth Day gatherings every few years. They began in 1984 when Pope John Pail II invited the world's youth to join him in St. Peter's Square for what he then called an International Jubilee of Youth on Palm Sunday. Over 300,000 young people filled the square causing the pope to remark, "What a fantastic spectacle is presented on this stage by your gathering here today! Who claimed that today's youth has lost their sense of values? Is it really true that they cannot be counted on?" Pope John Paul was so pleased with the turnout he decided to invite them back to Rome the following year for the first official World Youth Day. That was more than 25 years ago and since then World Youth Day has been held in many different locations throughout the world and the numbers attending have climbed considerably.

Surrounded by youth at Sept 2008 Papal Audience

Interestingly, on our visit to Rome for "deacons' week" during the Holy Year 2000, Diane and I were struck by the large numbers of young people we encountered throughout our week-long stay. At every event, at every venue, they vastly outnumbered us "mature" folks, and their enthusiasm and obvious joy were contagious. Since then Diane and I have returned to Rome three times and on each occasion encountered the same phenomenon: huge numbers of enthusiastic, prayerful young people. What a blessing! The mass media inundate us with one story after another depicting angry, self-centered, anarchic youth, who seem to lack any spiritual values whatsoever. How wonderful it is to know that these are not representative of all young people, that many of our youth are actively searching for the Way, the Truth, and the Life and striving to lead lives of holiness.

Keep our young people in your prayers, for they represent the future of our Church and our world. Blessed and guided by the Holy Spirit -- the Spirit of Truth and Wisdom and Love -- they can correct all those foolish mistakes our generations have made and can join in God's work of leading humanity to Jesus Christ. If you can afford it, you might consider helping one or more young people in your parish to make this pilgrimage to Madrid in August.

I've included two brief videos below. The first is the official "invitation video" asking young people to come and join the millions of others who will make this pilgrimage to Madrid, while the second highlights Pope Benedict's plans for making the pilgrimage with them. And here's a link to the official World Youth Day website.

 

Conversions & Evangelization

I came across a couple of interesting news stories yesterday. The first told of a record number of people in England who will be received into the Church this Easter. According to the Catholic Herald, a Catholic newspaper in the U.K., over 4,700 people took part in the Rite of Election last weekend in England and Wales. Many of these people, both lay and clergy, are Anglicans who are taking advantage of the personal ordinariate announced by the Vatican last year. Bishop Kieran Conry, who oversees the Bishops’ Department for Evangelization and Catechesis, stated:

“The witness of so many people taking this life-changing step is so very encouraging. Each year people freely choose to come forward from all walks of life, bringing with them unique experiences and talents. The Catholic community welcomes them with love and the assurance of prayer. If you’re considering taking a similar step or are not sure yet, come and see. Give your local Catholic church a ring or ask a Catholic friend for help."

To read the entire article, click here: Record Number to Be Received

The other story, from the Catholic News Service, addresses the upcoming World Youth Day scheduled to be held in Madrid this August. The organizers now estimate it will draw well over one million participants from around the world. What a wonderful sign of hope this is! (Click here to read the full story: One Million Expected at WYD)

Youth in Procession - Montserrat

Over the past decade, Diane and I have noticed obvious sings of spritiual interest and growth among our youth, the teens and twenty-somethings who will lead the Church in the near future. On our several visits to Rome since the Holy Year of 2000, we adults and seniors attending papal audiences seemed always to be outnumbered by the young people. And their enthusiasm was over-the-top and contagious.

On our recent stay in Barcelona, perhaps the most secular city in Europe, we couldn't help but notice the large numbers of young people we encountered during our visit to the monastery and shrine at nearby Montserrat. These young folks weren't simply tourists; they were pilgrims. One Catholic youth group, leaving the basilica in the company of a couple of young, enthusiastic priests, joined together in a typically unorganized procession, carried the cross, sang hymns, and danced the sardana, the traditional national dance of Catalunya. It was a marvelous sight.

Young musicians tune up - Montserrat

I have included a video I took below. Unfortunately I didn't video their procession as they left the Church, but I did take a few still photos (above).

Pray for our young people, that the Holy Spirit continue to work within them. Unlike the generation of their parents and grandparents, they will be the evangelizers in this wounded world, the future of the Church in these challenging times. How blessed we are to have them.

No Big Surprise: Abortion Increases With Contraceptive Use

For years (decades?) supporters of abortion have been telling us that as contraceptive use increases the abortion rate will certainly decrease dramatically. The pro-life community, however, has consistently disagreed with this speculative theory, knowing that increased contraceptive use will lead to increased promiscuity and an increase in abortions when contraceptives fail. Recent data from Spain shows that the pro-lifers have been correct all along.

A Spanish medical journal that focuses on contraception recently published the results of a study that followed a group of women of child-bearing age for over a decade. The results? Although contraceptive use increased from 50% to 80%, the abortion rate doubled. In the minds of many women, therefore, abortion has become just another method of contraception. Similar results have been observed in every country where abortion has been made legal, including the United States. Oh, yes, as you might expect, the folks who conducted the study are completely befuddled by the results. They have decided it will require more study.

Abortion is a tragedy whenever and wherever is occurs, but it's particularly sad to hear about these results in formerly Catholic Spain. Let's pray that the Holy Father's visit to Spain this August for World Youth Day will have a positive impact and bring Spain back to the faith.

For more information on the study mentioned above, click here: Abortions Double in Spain

Will the Pope Be the Catylyst for Spain's Conversion?

After writing today's earlier post on secularism is Spain, I came across a video showing the remarkable enthusiasm of the Spanish people who greeted Pope Benedict XVI during his visit in November. As I mentioned in a post early last month, Diane and I were privileged to have seen the Holy Father as he made his way across Barcelona in the Popemobile en route to Sagrada Familia. We saw the pope only for a moment and were nowhere near his destination, so I really can't comment on the size of the crowds at the basilica. As you can see in the video, though, some Spaniards have obviously kept the faith and gave Pope Benedict a truly warm welcome during his visit.

Perhaps our pope will be the catalyst for the re-conversion of Spain. He will be back again in August to celebrate World Youth Day in Madrid and what better people to begin the evangelization of Europe than its young people. Pray for its success.