Please click here to read the pastoral letter of Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland.

Fr. John Harris OP wrote a reflection on the letter of the Pope, please click on Read more!

What has the Pope to say to Youth 2000, Ireland

(A reflection by Fr John Harris OP on Pope Benedict’s Letter to the Catholics of Ireland)

“A young person’s experience of the Church should always bear fruit in a personal and life-giving encounter with Jesus Christ within a loving, nourishing community.”

These words, taken from the Holy Father’s recent letter to the Catholics of Ireland, is a wonderful description of what we in Youth 2000 Ireland wish to be part of. “Youth leading Youth to the heart of the Church” is our motto and with these words Pope Benedict XVI gives flesh to the motto for us in Ireland. Our desire is that every young person would meet Christ personally in the Church.

I am writing these few lines to you all to encourage you to read the Pope’s recent Letter and to reflect upon his words which “come from my heart (the Pope says) and I wish to speak to each of you individually”. It is a very important moment in the life of the Irish church and we want to be part of it. Throughout the Letter, the Pope speaks about healing, renewal and reparation. All of these issues have to be part of the future. I believe that Youth 2000 Ireland can play a central part in the Pope’s hope for the Church in Ireland.

Recently Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minster, paid tribute to all those who have worked for peace in Northern Ireland. He called them “men and women of courage, prepared to forgive the past in the service of the future”. We in Youth 2000 Ireland want to be part of the healing and renewal of the Church here on this blessed island as we pray in reparation. While the past is behind us, we are part of the future.

Paragraph 9 of the Letter addresses the young people of Ireland. It begins: “I wish to offer you a particular word of encouragement. Your experience of the Church is very different from that of your parents and grandparents. The world has changed greatly since they were your age. Yet all people, in every generation, are called to travel the same path through life, whatever their circumstances may be. We are all scandalized by the sins and failures of some of the Church's members, particularly those who were chosen especially to guide and serve young people”.

The Pope says that perseverance and prayer are needed with great trust in the healing power of God’s grace. He reminds us all that it is in the Church that we will find Jesus. The Pope says to you: “I look to you to be faithful disciples of our Lord and to bring your much-needed enthusiasm and idealism to the rebuilding and renewal of our beloved Church”.

The Pope reminds each one of you that Christ “loves you and he has offered himself on the cross for you. Seek a personal relationship with him within the communion of his Church, for he will never betray your trust! He alone can satisfy your deepest longings and give your lives their fullest meaning by directing them to the service of others. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and his goodness, and shelter the flame of faith in your heart.”

Pope Benedict invites us all “to respond to the challenges of the present hour by drawing renewed inspiration and strength from Ireland’s noble traditions of fidelity to the Gospel, perseverance in the faith and steadfastness in the pursuit of holiness”.

Finally the Holy Father proposes three concrete initiatives to address the present crisis, initiatives which are close to our hearts in Youth 2000,

(1) Eucharistic Adoration

(2) Frequent use of the sacrament of reconciliation

(3) Friday penances

The Popes writes “I now invite all of you to devote your Friday penances, for a period of one year, between now and Easter 2011. I ask you to offer up your fasting, your prayer, your reading of Scripture and your works of mercy in order to obtain the grace of healing and renewal for the Church in Ireland”.

This welcome Letter from the Pope is a call to all of us in Youth 2000 Ireland to “stand up to the plate” and work all the harder to bring youth to the heart of the Church. As we celebrate 20 years of Youth 2000 this Letter from Pope Benedict is a reissuing of Pope John Paul’s appeal at World Youth Day in Santiago de Compostela in Spain in 1989, when he called for young people to spread the Good News of Jesus among their peers. Ernest Williams heard the Pope’s appeal and founded Youth 2000. We don’t have to found anything new but we do need to be renewed in our commitment and enthusiasm.

The centre of the renewal of the Church is Eucharistic Adoration, the living, healing presence of the Lord Jesus in the midst of the Community of the Church. As a Eucharistic centered prayer movement the Pope asks us to be united with him for the future.

Go out and invite your friends to your local prayer meeting, invite them to the retreats. Be faithful to your weekly meeting and daily prayers. Be the future of the Church in Ireland. Be faithful to the Most Holy Rosary. This great prayer saw the Church in Ireland through hundreds of years of persecution. With Mary “the Church in Ireland will overcome the present crisis and become once more a convincing witness to the truth and the goodness of Almighty God, made manifest in his Son Jesus Christ”.

Please read the Pope’s Letter for yourselves, read it in your prayer groups. Listen to Peter the Pope speaking to you in this time of crisis that is fast becoming a time of renewal and rebirth.

United with you in prayer

Fr. John OP