environment, faith and mission. After the Covid, the Youth Day returns

From June 26 to 30, thousands of Indonesian girls and boys gathered in Palembang under the motto: “Stand up and become a witness of good.” The meeting had to be postponed several times due to the pandemic. Moments of meeting and deepening on various topics, from the Bible to the care of creation, according to the teachings of Pope Francis.

Jakarta () – At the end of the Third National Youth Day today, Msgr. Pius Riana Prapdi, head of youth ministry for the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference (KWI) and Bishop of Ketapang, West Kalimantan, invited young people to participate in the construction of society, become elements of vitality, and make their good deeds more and more “viral”. Dressed in traditional ethnic costumes and various outfits and accessories, the young people gathered at the Jakabaring Sports Center sang hymns and “triumphant” songs in a general atmosphere of euphoria and participation.

The event took place from June 26 to 30 in Palembang, South Sumatra province, under the motto “Rise up and become a witness of good”, and brought together thousands of participants, mostly young people, along with 14 bishops, dozens of priests and religious, volunteers and organizers. The first of these meetings was in Sanggau in 2012, the second in 2016 in Manado, and the third, which has just ended, had to be canceled several times due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2017, the city of Yogyakarta, in the Archdiocese of Semarang, hosted the Asian Youth Day for a week, one of the most important events for young people in Indonesia. Some of the central topics of debate between the organizers and the young participants were related to the environment and ecology, very topical at a historical moment marked by climate change. The teachings of Pope Francis and his invitation to protect the “common home” through “green” policies were taken as a reference. In this regard, Fr. Ferry Sutrisno Widjaja, from the Diocese of Bandung, proposed to those present to practice “healthy” policies and gestures in daily life, such as reducing smoking, limiting pollutants and household waste, and planting trees to counteract global warming.

Indonesian Youth Day (LYD) is the most important “meeting moment” for young Catholics in the country, and promises to be “a fruitful occasion” in which each participant can learn good things from young people their age, to become a “witness of good in society”. The p. Kristi Adi Pr, executive secretary of the Youth Commission of the Episcopal Conference, gave a summary of the event, during which various speakers and representatives of civil society took turns to share their experiences. One of them was Margaretha Quina, a young lawyer from Palembang who deals with environmental issues and natural resources, who explained her 14-year work in defense of the Earth Justice mission.

Fr. Joseph Susanto, a theologian and teacher at Stf Driyarkara High School in Jakarta, shared his personal experience and explained that reading the Bible and spreading its messages have “forged” his personality. He experienced the spiritual challenges of a young priest and had to face the tragic death of his father and his older sister from cancer. That same disease also attacked the priest but he is now fully recovered. “My goal in life,” he said, “is simple and genuine. I want to be a good priest and a philanthropic figure.” Famous in Indonesia for videos of him on YouTube, with which he also profited financially, the priest later shared the money raised in works for health care, education, school fees, etc. of the needy. Father Benny Pr, from the diocese of Surabaya, described the platform dedicated to catechism on the Internet that has been named YouCat Indonesia. Finally, Father Eko Wahyu OSC and Anastasia Satriyo spoke about the problems of families and the challenges of modern life.