The distressing and daily spectacle of conflicts, wars, tensions, divisions, and crises of all kinds creates doubt and discouragement in our world. And very often the gestures of peace and promotion of human dignity are pathetically powerless to change the course of the things, when they are not carried away and eventually recovered by the prevailing logic of exploitation and violence. Today, faced with various crises and conflicts that shake the human being, we all realize that our world needs big changes : "The whole creation groans and is in pain, she goes through the pains of childbirth that is still "(Rm 8:22). The decision-making structures at various levels of our society appear to be inadequate and unable to reach out a clear diagnosis, through which can come out remedies to the challenges of justice, peace, education, ethics, development, unemployment, poverty, etc.
To bring her part of solution, the IYCS organizes a comprehensive training session for pupils and students on the theme: “Crises and conflicts in the world, the students offering hope." Addressing the sources of the crises and conflicts, and investigating the conditions for resolving them, it is primary thinking about the human being at the same time as the author, the victim and the solution of these crises and conflicts. It is therefore the human being, the human being considered in his/her unit and his/her totality, the human being, body and soul, heart and conscience, thought and will, that will constitute the main axis of our investigations. In this momentum and stimulated by the faith in Jesus Christ, the IYCSers undertake to be the heralds of the hope in our world.
As the Fathers of the Council Vatican II underline it in the forward of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, " the joys and hopes, the grieves and anxieties of men of that time, especially the poor and those who suffer, these are the joys and hopes, the grieves and anxieties of the followers of Christ, and there is nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their heart." By placing the human being in his/her entirety at the centre of the reflections of this World Council, IYCS wishes to be today the echo of the Good News of God's Incarnation in all its mystery, God that we contemplate in gestures that restore hope, God, Love that we dare not to proclaim much because He disturbs the images that we made ourselves of Him. Squeezed in our thoughts about who the neighbour is, here we are jostled in our idea of God. Our God is a gift of love; he is eternally love giving life to the other.
The World Council is truly a space of exchange that allows young people to be agents of dialogue which purpose is to build a real communion between people, a real universal brotherhood that moves away the spectre of war and generate peace. It is a space that allows the youth to discover that the resolution of crises and conflicts requires that each one of us makes some sacrifices and resists facilities which lull in the mediocrity and sterile violence. The World Council is a great moment where the IYCSers through prayers, meditations of the word of God, the theological reflections, debates and workshops based on the realities of life, rooted in the methodology of life review, See-Judge-Act, live and experience the effectiveness of the Salvation in Jesus Christ whose love is capable to defeat the evil and bring forth life. For when Christ is accepted as our personal Saviour, transforms us and acts in each and every one of us and gives the human existence its full meaning. Every World Council of the IYCS appears therefore like a gift and a hope for the Church and the whole society.
The World Council doesn't consist in the only ten days. It is a long process from within and from without, since the members and the groups at the base, and also since the last World Council of 2007, which has led to the event which is fundamentally achieved through the sharing and the communion. That is why, with gratitude to our partners and our benefactors, and knowing that the Risen Christ always walks with us, we move forward, turning our eyes toward Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, invoking the guidance and the strength of the Holy Spirit so that we become witnesses of God's will which is that human beings may live in a world of peace and true love.
Fr. Paul Tiga ZANGRE
IYCS International Chaplain
