joins the celebration of the CBCP Year of the Youth

"Stand firm in the faith...do all your work in love" Cor 15: 13-14, TEV

DECLARATION

Youth in God's Plan of Salvation

1. All men are called to one and the same goal, namely, to live in union with God. This call to salvation is addressed to all, not merely as individuals, but as a people. God willed it so that at the appointed time His will to save all is to be manifested in Christ who instituted a new covenant in His blood, making all people one, not according to the flesh but in the spirit. Thus is formed the new People of God, the Church, of which Christ is the head. The people of God consist of the laity, clergy and the religious.
2. The Lord wishes to spread His kingdom then by means of the laity of which the youth are a part. They are, by baptism, sharers in the priestly, prophetic and kingly functions of Christ. They carry out their own part in the mission of the laity in the Church and in society.
3. The Youth in their different stages of growth have a role in the building of God's kingdom. They make their presence felt as changes in the societal structures and culture call into question accepted values. They are inclined to assume responsibility in society sooner than their elders can prepare them. Young people are the special objects of evangelization. Having been evangelized and strengthened in the faith by the sacrament of confirmation, they become the youngest evangelizers in the Church.
4. Youth is in itself a special treasure of the young man or woman, for it is the time of a particularly intense discovery of the human "I" and of the properties and capacities connected with it.

Nature of Youth

5. Since man is the fundamental and at the same time the daily way of the Church, it is easy to understand why the Church attributes special importance to the period of youth as a key stage in the life of every human being. lt is the time of discovering, choosing, foreseeing and making the first personal decisions in the individual and social areas of human life which will be important for the future.
6. Youth is not simply an age group but also an attitude towards life. It is a time beset by "deeper questioning, of anguished or even frustrating searching ... and sometimes of the first experiences of setbacks and of disappointments." It is a time of establishing self-identity that enables young people to make mature decisions and helps them to accept all the consequences of those decisions, an identity whose model is that of Christ.
7. Youth is the time of great aspirations to "something more." It can also be a time of disillusionment. "What disorients young people most is the threat to their need for authenticity by an adult environment, which is largely inconsistent and manipulative; by the generation-gap conflict; by a consumer civilization; by a certan instinct-oriented pedagogy; and by drugs, sexualism and the temptation to atheism."

Youth in Society

8. Young people symbolize the vitality of the nation. Their role is that of "injecting dynamism into the social body." As young persons, they exert a very substantial influence on society. As they themselves are transformed into maturity, they are to assume role in society as agents of change.
9. The Youth are sensitive to social and political realities. At times, they become victims of atheistic philosophies and unchristian ideologies in their attempt to respond to injustice, violence and oppression. The means of social communication manipulates their thoughts, feelings and desires.
10. The family is the primary social body in which young people are born and raised. It is the "domestic Church" in which the first lessons in catechesis are taught by the living witness of their parents. The parents' role as educators is so decisive that scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in doing it. In response, the youth "contribute in their own way to making their parents holy. For they will respond to the kindness of their parents with sentiments of gratitude, with love and trust."

Youth in the Church

11. The Church takes shape in human history. Through the centuries, the Church has adopted several Church models in its attempts to live its mission from Christ. At the same time, the different Church models point to the mystery of the Church and help us grasp the Church and see it in different dimensions. The Second Vatican Council opened the door in the direction of a more open and socially-oriented Church, ecumenical, emerging from the "roots" (small communities with different kinds of leaders), indigenized and contextualized.
12. The Church looks to the youth with confidence and with love. It sees in young people an enormous force for renewal, a symbol of the Church itself ... for it is called to constant self-rejuvenation. The Church calls upon young people to become the prime and direct apostles among themselves and through themselves, and reckoning with the social environment in which they live."
13. The Youth share in the development of the Church where they are. Their personal and apostolic formation is affected to a great extent by the Church model that their local Church adopts.
14. The Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) as an emerging Church model ensured the development of the youth as Christian decision-makers, responsive and responsible in the community. As agents of change, the youth become faith-full, grace-filled, prayerful and compassionate as they contribute to the building up of these ecclesial communities. Even with Basic Ecclesial Communities, the youth will always be members of a Church that is an institution and a community of human beings, in need of constant reform and renewal. Thus within their local church, the young people will wield their influence as Christian agents of change, hastening the coming of God's kingdom in Cebu as a firmly believing, sincerely worshipping, generously serving, prophetically witnessing, joyfully radiating community.

Youth Spirituality

15. Spirituality is a person's response to Christ before the challenge of everyday life, in a given historical and cultural environment. The youth respond in faith according to what and where they are. They assert themselves, their independence, values and ideals, while at the same time conscious of their limitations, confusions and lack of vision, uncertain of their future as they search constantly for the meaning of life.
16. The Youth need a spirituality which will prepare them in order to become more receptive to the Church's task of evangelization, and will make them an active force in its evangelical mission.

This spirituality should be:

1. Christ-centered and Biblical. Christ is presented as "the way, the truth, and the life' (In. 14:6) to the youth's search for meaning and value in life. The focus of their formation should be the experience of Christ who is the "ultimate basis" of all values and the "definitive meaning to their human existence." In their confusion and questioning, the reading of the Scriptures will steep them in the Lord's criteria, orientation and attitudes that will develop in them an alert conscience which will help them in the daily choices of life, sometimes even in opposition to the current of popular opinion and propaganda slogans.
2. Prayerful. Knowing who Christ is from the Scriptures, prayer should accompany and deepen their reading experience, for they "speak to Him when they pray and they hear Him when they read the Divine Sayings". True prayer will develop in them a contemplative outlook on the world, people and realities with the heart and mind of Christ, committing themselves to the service of the kingdom and growing in His love (Phil. 2:5).
3. Communitarian.Young people who are well-formed in faith and prayer must become more and more apostles to the youth. As agents of change, the youth of Cebu are called to be the "youngest evangelizers", first and foremost to their peers. This demands of them first of all, the acceptance of the necessity of effort as a pre-requisite for the free gift of themselves to others and to enable them to experience the joy of self-mastery and victory over obstacles and barriers; secondly, a recognition of the value of sharing, with the awareness that... "man who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself" and, "must learn to give (himself) without calculation"; thirdly, a growth toward gratuitousness, to recognize that everything they possess are gifts from God and to counteract society's tendency to make them believe that everything can be bought or sold; finally, a growth to a life of responsibility which opens them to a life-long process of contacts with others and life's realities, enabling them to make critical judgments and develop a discerning attitude. Through "clash" with society and other men, the youth become responsible for this same society and the Church in particular.
4. Liturgical. In response to the Cebuano youth's experience of the sacraments as apart from their realities, their formation should include sound liturgical instruction and meaningful, relevant celebration of the sacraments and sacramentals.

17. The above-mentioned elements of spirituality for the youth will ensure their total personal Christian formation and equip them with Christian maturity in the apostolate.

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