Last Wednesday, the San Lorenzo international youth center, created and consecrated by Saint John Paul II for the young people,was visited by Cardinal Américo Manuel Alves Aguiar. Cardinal Américo visited and presided for the first time at San Lorenzo’s church, where the official pilgrim cross of World Youth Day (WYD) is located, a Mass in thanksgiving for the fruits of WYD held last year in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Church and the Youth Centre are just a few steps from St Peter’s Square in the Vatican, and it is the place where pilgrims, mostly young people, from all over the world are welcomed and evangelized on a daily basis, work carried out by missionaries from the Shalom Catholic Community present in Rome.
In his homily, the cardinal commented on the importance of the church and the San Lorenzo center: “To enter here is to enter into history”. He also reflected on the Gospel of the day (Mk 4:1-20) making an appeal: “Every WYD is a sowing of the word (…) May we be able to bear witness with our lives that Christ lives (…) to all men and women, and especially to young people, to whom we dedicate ourselves in a special way.”
Mass was also attended by members and missionaries of the Shalom Community, as well as some guests from the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, the sector responsible for organizing and promoting World Youth Day. Father João Wilkes Rebouças Chagas, in charge of the youth sector in the same Dicastery and a member of the Shalom Catholic Community, at the end of the Eucharistic celebration thanked His Grace for his visit and stressed that the relationship with the Cardinal “goes beyond collaboration in the organization of an event”.
“Both the Shalom Community and the Dicastery entered into a relationship with Bishop Américo during the preparations for WYD… but as Benedict XVI said, The WYD creates a network of friends. Beyond the work is the relationship of friendship that always unites us in Christ in view of the perennial mission of the Church,” concluded Father João Chagas.
Also commenting on the Cardinal’s visit, Father Francisco Tiago Soares, the Community’s international assistant, said: “Dom Américo is a friend of the community (…) a friendship that was born out of the mission and which also puts us in the missionary movement.”
Dom Américo was President of the WYD Lisbon 2023 Foundation (directly responsible for organizing the event) and Director of the Communication Department of the Lisbon Patriarchate. He is a member of the Dicastery for Communication and the current Bishop of Setúbal, Portugal.