How the relationship of General Z with religion changes

When someone told me that it would be like the Catholic version of Woodstock, I laughed.

But as soon as I got there, I thought: Well, now I get it!

While I was walking through the lands of Tor Vergata, which has an area of 237 acres, 10 miles east of Rome, it was around me. Hundreds of thousands of young people from all over the worldPrepare their tents, bombing the air beds, singing and dancing as a Christian music pumping from amplifiers. It was a hot Roman day, about 90 degrees, and some of these pilgrims went for up to eight hours to get here. But still, the heat was not a deterrent to joy in the air.

What was unusual in this event, the jubilee of youth, is that while there were well -known Christian artists performing the performance of young people, the youth did not come to see them. They were waiting for prayer. Yes – Pray!

When, at 7:30 pm, a helicopter roar was heard, the crowd erupted. The white papacy helicopter made a short journey of the Vatican and a role around the crowd twice. FIFA Baba, chanted.

Throwing clouds from dust, the helicopter was glowing in the evening sun and it fell. Then on the large screens, people watched the name of Pope Liu XIV – the first American Pope – appeared and resigned and resigned.

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“It moves incredibly”

After the fabric through the crowd, going back and forth on the sea of people on both sides, the Pope moved to the theater and led the standing of a two -hour spiritual prayer.

The moment the Pope Liu brought out the Eucharist, what Catholics believe was the true body of Jesus in bread, the sudden of a million young men, and many of them were on their knees with their eyes closed.

Father Vincent Bernhard, a university priest at New York University, who was driving a pilgrimage from young people from all over the United States, was transferred at that moment: “It was very silent, where you could hear a pin drop. When you looked at Al -Hawli, you could see everyone kneeling and looking in one direction. He was moving incredibly. Only the Pope could do so.

Something changes in society when it comes to General Z and its relationship to religion. Their parents may be drifted from the church – due to scandals, laziness, changing priorities, etc.

But one of the young people I spoke to in Tor Vergata, I felt a feeling that they were looking for deeper answers to the oldest questions in life. This is something that Pope Liu spoke directly from the theater: “There is a burning question in our hearts, a need for the truth that we cannot ignore, which leads us to ask ourselves: What is true happiness? What is the true meaning of life? … Jesus is our hope.”

The true meaning

In fact, from traveling around the world that covers the Catholic Church and the relationship of people with the faith of EWTN, I think that young people – especially – were fed with the lying that they will find in fame, wealth and followers.

They have been encouraged to suspend their identity in their career, social personality, and popularity. Although these things may provide immediate, short -term satisfaction, more and more young people realize that they do not lead to a permanent and meaningful achievement.

When the three f – fame, wealth, and followers disappear – what gives your life loyalty and meaning? Young people are looking for the meaning today, and many find it in the traditions of the Catholic Church, its culture and its beauty.

For years it was not “great” to be Catholic, or even easy to say that you believe in God. But as with anything that is pushed aside or suppressed, the opposite occurs sometimes-it is due to the appearance of something unexpected, something different. An anti -culture that arouses the attention of young people and begins to attract them again.

The Jubileel braid for youth, and a million young men on their knees in a field outside Rome. There is something deep is their drawing, and with the presence of the Pope’s Catholic Church a new and timely young man talks about social media, algorithms and artificial intelligence, youth participate.

I found a house

When the darkness fell to Tor Vergata, sang the choir, “Jesus Christ, you are my life”, where the papal helicopter was again in the air and returned to the Vatican city. It was one of the most powerful messages that the young Pope left with them, “She aspires to great things, to holiness, wherever you are. Do not settle for less.”

A young man with the father. Vincent was the 19 -year -old Marco Teresi from Illinois. He recently entered faith and told me, “This was exciting. I really feel changed forever. I feel that I found my home forever in the Catholic Church.”

Colm Flynn is an EWTN reporter, global Catholic TV.