What is important about the WYD theme? Why is so much attention given to it? How is the theme going to influence what Pope Benedict XVI has called a “privileged occasion?”

 By Stephen Lawrence

Looking back to the meetings held between the Sydney WYD2008 Office with officials of the Pontifical Council for the Laity (PCL) in the early lead up to 2008 the question of the theme was given primary importance. I recall Cardinal Rylko, the PCL President, emphasizing to us that what gives shape to each particular World Youth Day, what gives its special character above all other things, is twofold. First, he said, it is the host country with its situation, its customs, its culture, its life. And second, he pointed out, that which profoundly forms, guides and enlightens the whole pastoral action and experience of a World Youth Day, is the biblical theme entrusted to it.

In Sydney, we saw just how significant the Acts 1:8 theme, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses,” proved to be in elements as diverse as our pastoral preparation and our merchandising, from the catechesis to the marketing, in the homilies and through the media. The constant interaction and dialogue between that theme and our Australian history and culture will be a matter for reflection for a long time, even though some immediate aspects became evident in the aftermath of that strikingly joyful event.

The theme for Madrid 2011 “Be planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith” (Col 2:7) is clearly a call to the young people of the world to have their lives founded in Christ, to draw their lives from Him, His Word, the Sacraments, and all that is in and through the Church. But there is another element, less obvious to us here in Australia, which clearly underpins the choice of the theme for the European context and for Spain. For the last decade or so there has been great consternation from within the Church at the refusal by the European Union to acknowledge the Christian roots of Europe in the Preamble to its Constitution. In simplified form, recognition is being granted to the philosophical and cultural contribution made by the ancient Greeks, as well as those thinkers of the so-called “Enlightenment” from the 18th century onwards. Yet there is no recognition of the undeniable significance of Christianity for a period of over more than fifteen centuries, a case of extraordinary historical and cultural – not to mention religious – amnesia. A most curious situation. It is into this situation of a Europe denying its roots, and forgetting its patrimony, that the Word of God – our Col 2:7 text – is being announced.

The profound sense of the theme and this particular context is obscured by the fact that for fairly understandable local reasons the wording of the theme has been amended from “Be rooted and built up in Jesus Christ firm in the faith” to “be planted and built up…” This decision has been made to better help Australians receive the word itself, and not to be distracted by colloquial usage of the word. Nonetheless, to me the meaning is clearer in the original. The thought of a tree being “rooted” has a stronger sense of its origin and its depth than “planted”. Planted seems more transitory in my thinking. A rootless Europe is one without a future. Benedict is calling it to remember its origins and to return to its source of life. He wants Europe to return to its roots, as did John Paul II.

Spain too, gripped by near economic collapse, more than thirty percent unemployment, led by a largely anti-Catholic Socialist and Masonic influenced government, is floundering under an enormous attack on its religious and moral foundations from every angle. In this fragile context the Church is being assisted by a desperate government to run a World Youth Day that promises to bring a massive financial boon. The mystery of Divine Providence is forever at work.

The evangelisation of nations and continents has always been one of the key goals of the strategic decisions behind the venue of the World Youth Days by the pope, first of its father the Blessed Pope John Paul II, and now by his humble and insightful successor Pope Benedict XVI. At the heart of this strategy is the simple yet extraordinary task of bringing the young people of the world to a particular place, and with them their music and their joy and their faith. Probably more than any other thing that will give a testimony to the truth that Jesus Christ is the only one in Whom Spain and Europe, and indeed the whole world, ought to find its foundation and its roots, it is the vibrant and unified body of the world’s young people with the Successor of Peter acclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord. Pope Benedict XVI put it to a delegation from Madrid in anticipation of this upcoming WYD: “Whoever trusts in him is never disappointed, but finds the necessary strength to choose the right path in life.”

By joining and entering wholehearted with this pilgrimage to Madrid you are not only allowing your own lives to “be planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith” but you are contributing to the mission of evangelising Europe, and investing in the future of the good of humanity.

Stephen Lawrence was Director of Evangelisation and Catechesis WYD2008, and he is the author of “Five Smooth Stones: A 40 Day WYD08 Journal Personal Anecdotes and Reflections”