Church/Portugal: D. Nuno Almeida invited young people to say “yes to peace” and to their commitment to resolving “conflict situations”

Participants in Fátima Jovem were challenged to “get out of the bubble”, to “meet others and welcome the gift of their diversity”

Fátima, May 5, 2024 (Ecclesia) – D. Nuno Almeida today invited the young people gathered in Fátima to “give their lives for others” and to say “yes” to peace and commitment, in resolving “conflict situations”.

“Called by name, to say yes to peace and strive so that in situations of conflict, understanding and reconciliation can be reached, through dialogue. Without peace our world has no future. The peace that comes from Above and is the fruit of human effort, the ‘peace without winner or loser’”, highlighted the president of the Episcopal Laity and Family Commission (CELF) to the participants in ‘Fátima Jovem’ 2024 which took place since Saturday, at homily from the concluding Mass of the event, sent to the ECCLESIA Agency.

“Where someone witnesses and ignites the love that Christ brought to earth, everything is renewed, because that love not only unites the soul with God, but also connects us with each other. All it takes is two or three people who consciously live and share this divine and human way of loving, for God’s love to once again give hope and make us builders of peace”, added the bishop of the Diocese of Bragança-Miranda.

The national meeting brought together participants from 16 dioceses in Portugal, bringing together movements and religious congregations who were attracted by the invitation to be ‘Called to the Encounter’ and D. Nuno Almeida invited young people to “give love to others”, so as not to close themselves in a “ bubble”.

Love is a courageous exit from oneself, to meet others and welcome the gift of their diversity. We are called to love God and to love one another. Thus, our path on this earth is never reduced to aimless toil or aimless wandering; on the contrary, every day, responding to our call, we seek to take the possible steps towards a new world, where we live in peace, justice and love”.

The Catholic leader stressed that “God loves and calls everyone” and that “he chooses and welcomes everyone”.

“Our society lives in a daze with too many words; scattered with the saturation of so many images, it needs to see the Gospel lived, put into practice, capable of creating an ever new way of relating, marked by fraternity and love”, he explained.

D. Nuno Almeida recalled the path towards the Jubilee Year of 2025, after World Youth Day.

“We walk as pilgrims of hope, we can be bearers and witnesses of Jesus’ dream in the world: to form one family, united in the love of God and interconnected by the bond of charity, sharing and fraternity. We are called to be pilgrims of hope and sent to build peace. Each of us, in our own place, in our state of life, can be, with the help of the Holy Spirit, a sower of hope and peace”, he invited.

We condemn the violent attacks that took place in Porto against our emigrant brothers”.

Recalling WYD Lisbon 2023’s challenge for young people to rise up, the person responsible for CELF invited participants to “wake up from their sleep, come out of indifference” and “communicate good news of joy, generate new life and be artisans of fraternity and peace”.

“Let us open the bars of the prison in which we sometimes confine ourselves, so that each of us can discover our own vocation in the Church and in the world and become a pilgrim of hope and a builder of peace”, highlighted the Bishop of Bragança-Miranda.

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