Pope Francis meets again with Knights of Columbus

Vatican City, Oct 5, 2018 / 07:46 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A young U.S. Catholic participating in the 2018 Synod of Bishops said he hopes the Vatican meeting is a starting point for implementing change within the local dioceses and for raising the importance of positive Catholic role models.

For whatever reason young people may leave the Church, “the need is for positive examples of the faith,” Jonathan Lewis told CNA Oct. 5.

“I see the need for us to have in each of our parish communities – it can’t just be one parish in each diocese, it has to be in every community – relationships of love, friendship, and mentorship to walk with young people at every step of faith.”

Lewis, 32, is an auditor to the synod – one of 34 young adults appointed by Pope Francis to participate in a meeting of bishops from around the world, discussing young adults, the faith, and vocational discernment.

Lewis has worked for the Archdiocese of Washington for six years, first as the director of evangelization and young adult ministries and now as assistant secretary for pastoral ministry and social concerns.

Prior to his work in D.C., Lewis worked in parish ministry, doing religious education, youth ministry, and young adult ministry in the dioceses of Wilmington and Kansas City, and the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

A native of Kansas, he studied at Catholic University of America and holds a master’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame. He is married, and he and his wife are expecting their first child.

As an auditor for the Vatican’s synod on young people, faith, and vocational discernment, Lewis is listening in on the general congregations, will give one four-minute speech called an intervention, and will join in the working groups of the latter part of the assembly.

Lewis said he sees the youth synod as an opportunity to “revive the Church by focusing on the young voices of committed Catholics,” and by going out as missionaries to reach young people who do not practice the faith, but who often still have “a strong spiritual sense and desire to make a difference in our world.”

About the many concerns people have voiced regarding the synod, among them that it will be a lot of show, but have little real-world impact, Lewis said there is no way “a month-long meeting or one document, can include each of the perspectives of young people worldwide.”

However, he thinks the meeting, which he said has so far had a positive atmosphere inside the hall, “can certainly begin a discussion.”

“Whatever the final document is, [I hope] it will be a beginning point for the Church to implement a priority of young people,” he said.

Lewis explained that his intervention – the short speech he will offer during the meeting – will be focused on the need for strong mentorship-type relationships for young people.

Whatever you call it, whether discipleship mentorship, spiritual mentors, spiritual advisors, or spiritual direction, “today we need to cultivate relationships of spiritual friendship in the life of our parishes,” he said.

In his experience, and he believes the experience of many Catholics, long-term commitment to the faith and to the Church is correlated to the number and quality of relationships with faith mentors one has had throughout their life, whether parents, a catechist, pastor, or teacher.

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Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in London, England, on March 14, 2011. Credit: Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk.

Rome Newsroom, Dec 17, 2021 / 15:44 pm (CNA).
Cardinal Peter Turkson’s tenure… […]

Pope Francis opens the Holy Doors at St. Peter’s Basilica to begin the Year of Mercy, Dec. 8, 2015. / L’Osservatore Romano.

Vatican City, Jan 13, 2022 / 10:27 am (CNA).

Preparations are already underway in Rome for the 2025 Jubilee, a special year of grace and pilgrimage in the Catholic Church.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella met with Pope Francis this month to discuss the motto for the jubilee. 

In a video published by Vatican News on Jan. 13, Fisichella revealed that the motto approved by the pope “can be summed up in two words: Pilgrims of Hope.”

The 2025 Jubilee will be the Church’s first ordinary jubilee since St. John Paul II led The Great Jubilee of 2000. The Jubilee of Mercy opened by Pope Francis in 2015 was an extraordinary jubilee.

Archbishop Fisichella leads the Vatican dicastery entrusted with the event’s organization, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.

“There is so much work to be done,” he said.

The 2025 Jubilee will include the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica. Pilgrims who pass through the door – which is only opened during Jubilee years, ordinarily every 25 years or when a pope calls for an extraordinary Jubilee – can receive a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions.

The four major basilicas in Rome all have Holy Doors. During the Extraordinary Jubilee of 2015, Pope Francis also granted cathedral churches around the world permission to establish and open a Holy Door.

Jubilees have biblical roots, as the Mosaic era established jubilee years to be held every 50 years for the freeing of slaves and forgiveness of debts as manifestations of God’s mercy.

The practice was re-established in 1300 by Boniface VIII. Pilgrims to Rome were granted a plenary indulgence. Between 1300 and 2000, 29 jubilee years were held in Rome.

“To pass through the Holy Door means to rediscover the infinite mercy of the Father who welcomes everyone and goes out personally to encounter each of them. It is he who seeks us! It is he who comes to encounter us,” Pope Francis said as he opened the jubilee Holy Door on St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 8, 2015.

“In passing through the Holy Door, then, may we feel that we ourselves are part of this mystery of love, of tenderness. Let us set aside all fear and dread, for these do not befit men and women who are loved. Instead, let us experience the joy of encountering that grace which transforms all things,” he said.

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