by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
Tomorrow my father, Balgobin Ramdeen, will be 88 years old. Happy Birthday, Pa! In preparation for CCSJ’s next Ask Why TV programme (see TCN Channel 10 on July 23), Pa and I have been discussing the theme: Youth and Social Justice. He told me a story about how, even as a young boy, he took action against injustice.
Each year, the principal at a primary school that he attended would arrange for groups of students to plant and cultivate vegetables on the grounds of the school. Each year students would reap abundant harvests. The principal would ride in on his bicycle, bringing with him two large bags. He then ordered certain students to fill the bags with the fruits of their labour – all this while they should be in their classrooms. He would then send a student to deliver the vegetables to his home, with the produce hanging from the handlebar of his bicycle – again during the school day.
Year after year this occurred and complaints by students fell on deaf ears – that is, until Pa wrote a letter to the Editor of one of our newspapers and it was published. In the letter he outlined the injustice that was taking place at the school. Although Pa did not name the school, the principal and others in the school were able to identify it. The principal was angry about the publicity but this unjust practice ceased.
Our children are aware of injustices, including corruption, which exist at all levels of our society. If we want to build a just society, we adults must model just behaviour. I commend all those involved in Youth Development in our country and urge parishes to work with our Parish and Vicariate Link Coordinators, the Youth Commission and other Departments to develop youth programmes to promote integral human development.
This past week, a number of youth from T&T left to attend the 28th World Youth Day (WYD) which takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 23 – 28. The theme this year, Go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19), is of significance to all baptised Catholics. As the official WYD website states, the theme “motivates each participant to let the light of the Risen Christ dissipate the darkness of fear and doubts that paralyse. It encourages young people to be missionaries even in situations of conflict, in countries where Christians are persecuted, amid a secularised world that does not want to live Christian values.
“So this is the mandate of the Church to the Catholic youth. Go, young missionaries who trust in the Church’s Magisterium and support their faith in liturgy and life in community! Go and evangelise with your personal gifts! Go and strengthen your faith with answers and explanations about the issues that distress the world today!”
Visit the official website at: http://www.rio2013.com to access, for example, the official hymn, Hope of the Dawn, and the official prayer. On Palm Sunday this year, Pope Francis urged young people to prepare themselves well for WYD, “especially spiritually, in your communities, so that the Encounter may be a sign of faith for the entire world. The youth must announce to the world: it is good to follow Jesus, it is good to go with Jesus; the message of Jesus is good; it is good to come out of ourselves, from the edges of existence of the world and to bring Jesus to others.”
Pope Francis will be leading by reaching out to those in need. He has said that a pastor has to smell of sheep – meaning that the Church (including us) has to be close to those it serves. His itinerary includes a visit to a community in Varginha (in the Manguinhos neighbourhood) which is populated by thousands of poor people. He will also meet with some juvenile detainees at the Archbishop’s residence.
He will visit Brazil’s National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida where, during the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2007, the Aparecida document was crafted. The then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (now Pope Francis) was president of the committee responsible for drafting the final document, which was sent to the Vatican for approval.
May the Youth of the World be so inspired that they “bring faith, hope and charity to the four corners of the earth, becoming great builders of a culture of life and peace and catalysts of a new world. Amen!” (Extract from official WYD Prayer).
