Document final — Les jeunes

The parish has to be involved in this process, as it seeks to become a more generative community, an environment which spearheads the mission towards the lowliest. There are signs that the parish does not always succeed in meeting the spiritual needs of the people of our day, largely because of certain factors which have profoundly changed people’s lifestyles. We now live in a culture “without boundaries”, marked by new spatio-temporal relationships – partly because of digital communication – and by constant mobility. In this context, an understanding of the parish defined solely by territorial borders and incapable of engaging the faithful in a wide range of initiatives, especially the young, would imprison the parish in unacceptable stagnation and in worryingly repetitive pastoral cycles. So the parish needs to be rethought pastorally, in terms of ecclesial co-responsibility and missionary enthusiasm, exploring new synergies within its area. Only then will it become a significant environment in which to engage the lives of the young.