WCC shares joyful greetings with youth in Taizé European Encounter

World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca shared joyful greetings to the Taizé European Youth Encounter as young people self-reflected, prayed, met each other, and together faced the needs of our times.

“Your presence lifts my heart because I see in it a sign that we—as persons, as Christians, as Europeans—can, through our personal and collective transformation as disciples of Christ, meet and surmount the many difficulties and challenges our world struggles to cope with today,” he said. “You give me hope!”

We can become artisans of unity, Sauca reflected. “We forge friendships and create genuine community with those around us, even or especially with those different from us,” he said. “We experience solidarity with all those in need and with our needy planet.”

We let our hope open new and creative approaches, Sauca noted. “We explore shared values and pursue reconciliation to bring all of us together as one human family,” he said. “Such radical conversion—giving ourselves over fully to love—is neither quick nor easy, but it is what we are made for.”

Sauca said he would not belabor all the mountainous challenges we face today. “Our one hope of overcoming them and creating a sustainable future lies in coming together as persons and communities absolutely committed to life, to the dignity and well-being of each person, and to the welfare of creation,” he said. “As young people, as persons of love and conscience, as disciples of Christ and his way, you hold a key to that future.”

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