Vatican City, Jun 5, 2006 / 22:00 pm
The Church and its teaching must be presented to the youth as a friend and not as an obstacle to their freedom, Pope Benedict XVI said yesterday evening at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.
The Holy Father inaugurated the diocesan ecclesial congress on Tuesday, which is being held from June 5 to 8 on the theme: "The joy of faith and the education of new generations."
“Educating new generations in the faith is a great and fundamentally important task that involves the entire Christian community,” one that has become “particularly difficult” today and, hence, is “even more important and urgent,” the Pope said.
According to the Pontiff, the new generations must experience that the Church “is a company of friends, one that is truly trustworthy and remains close in all the moments and circumstances of life and that will never abandon us even in death, because it carries in itself the promise of eternity.”