On April 6, 2006, in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI met the youth of the Rome and Latium region, in preparation for the diocesan-level World Youth Day. Five young people asked questions to the Holy Father, which he answered spontaneously. Here is one of these questions, followed by the Pope's answer:
Question: Most Holy Father, my name is Inelida. I am 17 years old. In your Message for the 21st World Youth Day, you said: "There is an urgent need for the emergence of a new generation of apostles anchored firmly in the Word of Christ." These are such forceful and demanding words that they are almost frightening.
Of course, we also want to be new apostles, but could you explain to us in greater detail what in your opinion are the greatest challenges to face in our time, and how you imagine these new apostles should be? In other words, what does the Lord expect of us, Your Holiness?
The Pope's answer: We all ask ourselves what the Lord expects of us. It seems to me that the great challenge of our time — this is what the Bishops on their ad limina visits tell me, those from Africa, for example — is secularization: that is, a way of living and presenting the world as if God did not exist.
There is a desire to reduce God to the private sphere, to a sentiment, as if He were not an objective reality. As a result, everyone makes his or her own plan of life. But this vision, presented as though it were scientific, accepts as valid only what can be proven.
With a God that is not available for experimentation, this vison ends by also injuring society. The result is in fact that each one makes his own plan, and in the end finds himself opposed to the other. As can be seen, this is definitely an unliveable situation.
We must make God present again in our society. This seems to me to be the first element: that God be once again present in our lives, that we do not live as though we were autonomous, authorized to invent what freedom and life are. We must realize that we are creatures, aware that here is a God who has created us, and that living in accordance with His will is not dependence, but a gift of love that makes us alive.
Thereford, the first point is to know God, to know Him better and better, to recognize that God is in my life, and that God has a place.
The second point — if we recognize that there is a God, that our freedom is a freedom shared with others, and that there must consequently be a common parameter for building a common reality — the second point I was saying, presents the question: what God? Indeed, there are so many false images of God, a violent God, etc.
The second point, therefore, is recognizing God who has shown us His face in Jesus, who suffered for us, who loved us to the point of dying, and thus overcame violence. It is necessary to make the living God present in our "own" lives first of all, the God who is not a stranger, a fictitious God, a God only thought of, but a God who has shown Himself, who has shown His being and His face.
Only in this way do our lives become true, authentically human; hence, the criteria of true humanism emerge in society.
Here too, as I said in my first answer, it is true that we cannot be alone in building this just and righteous life, but must journey on in the company of good and upright friends, companions with whom we can experience that God exists and that it is beautiful to walk with God; and to walk in the great company of the Church, which presents to us down the centuries a God who speaks, who acts, who accompanies us.
Therefore, I would say: to find God, to find God revealed in Jesus Christ, to walk in company with His great family, with our brothers and sisters who are God's family, this seems to me to be the essential content of this apostolate of which I spoke.
Pope Benedict XVI
companions with whom we can experience that God exists and that it is beautiful to walk with God; and to walk in the great company of the Church, which presents to us down the centuries a God who speaks, who acts, who accompanies us.
Therefore, I would say: to find God, to find God revealed in Jesus Christ, to walk in company with His great family, with our brothers and sisters who are God's family, this seems to me to be the essential content of this apostolate of which I spoke.
Pope Benedict XVI