Letter of the President of the Dehonian Major Superiors of Europe, regarding the next World Youth Day in Lisbon (Portugal)
Dear Major Superiors of the European Entities,
the next World Youth Day, a great event for the Church that will bring young people from all over the world to Portugal, is scheduled to take place in August 2023 in Lisbon.
The time has come for us Dehonians to gather our European entities to participate in this worldwide ecclesial event by mobilizing young people who share the Dehonian charism with us.
As is tradition among us, WYD is usually preceded by a Dehonian Youth Meeting in the country where the Days take place, to promote the Sint unum of young people connected to our parishes, schools, chaplaincies, and all kinds of pastoral work we carry out on our continent.
In order to coordinate the participation of our young people in these two events – European Dehonian Youth Meeting and WYD – the General Government, in agreement with the Major Superiors of Europe, establishes the European SCJ Commission Portugal 2023, composed of the following confreres of various entities:
- Fr. Igor André Barbosa de Oliveira, SCJ – Portugal
- Fr. Pedro Manuel de Sousa, SCJ – Portugal
- Fr. Angel Alindado, SCJ – Spain
- Fr. Amedeo Tocci, SCJ – Southern Italy
- Fr. Julio César Ferreira, SCJ – Germany
- Fr. Franciszek Wielgut, SCJ – Poland
- Fr. Marco Mazzotti, SCJ – Northern Italy
- Fr. Marko Sop SCJ – Croatia
These brothers are joined by the Portuguese SCJ delegation for the WYD, made up of lay young people. We are grateful for the availability of these confreres and their entities for this service of promoting young people in preparation for WYD 2023.
We live in difficult times with regard to our entities and the mission we carry out on our continent, times marked by the pandemics, secularization, and other challenges that have weakened the credibility of the Church and its ability to dialogue with the young.
May this be an opportunity to revitalize our way of dialoguing with young people and a sign that, working together as an SCJ entity, we can better live out the charism we have inherited from Fr. Dehon.
To all of you our fraternal regards.
In Corde Iesu
Fr. Renzo Brena scj
