The bishop of Ponce, Puerto Rico - hometown of my mother and her 13 siblings.
Number 74 of the Instrumentum laboris urges the importance of a catechesis that clarifies the bond between the Eucharist and the construction of a just society.
This same number 74 expresses, "The Church has great hope in her young people who are increasingly being drawn to the Eucharist".
My intervention is in the sense that:
1. The importance that the youth have and of what is hoped of them should be emphasized more with a specific calling and a direct invitation to them to participate "in" and live "from"
the Eucharist.
I asked a young person what message he wanted me to transmit at the Synod on behalf of the youth, and the reply was: "to listen to us".
In front of the reality that young people live today, particularly in developed countries, it's becoming necessary and urgent to offer, present, and celebrate the Eucharist with them, in a way that, in the words of John Paul II, they feel “the Eucharist as the vital centre, around which young people gather to nourish their faith and enthusiasm".
2. The Catechism needs to de deepened in more [sic]. Today we hear about the loss of the sense of sin.
Many Catholics are very far away from being able to render or give account for their own faith, such as St. Peter proposes in his first letter: “and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you have".
On the other hand, it is not possible to love that which is not known. And not having the knowledge of the Church, the Eucharist, or of Christian faith, it is difficult to be able to love the Church, the Eucharist and that same Christian faith.
Catechesis is what is required. It seems to me that we suffer from lack of catechesis. I have the impression that no solid and deep catechesis is in progress. Our people are grateful and hungry for catechesis, that the truths of faith be explained to them.
The absence of catechesis and religious formation can perhaps also explain the facility with and reason for which some of our faithful go to other denominations and religious sects, drawn by the fireworks that a pseudo-religious science offers them, because they were not illuminated in time with the light of the Gospel through an adequate and good catechesis.
