VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Young men and women can live a true experience of the church by joining together and reconnecting with the past, Pope Francis told Catholic young people.
[caption id="attachment_22391" align="alignright" width="250"] Pilgrims cheer after the Way of the Cross during World Youth Day in 2016 at Blonia Park in Krakow, Poland. Young men and women can live a true experience of the church by joining together and reconnecting with the past, Pope Francis told Catholic young people in his message for the local observances of World Youth Day 2017. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) See POPE-WYD-MESSAGE March 21, 2017.[/caption]
"The genuine experience of the church is not like a flash mob, where people agree to meet, do their thing and then go their separate ways," the pope said in his message for World Youth Day 2017.
The message, released March 21 at the Vatican, centered on a verse of the Magnificat: "The Mighty One has done great things for me."
Pope Francis has chosen several verses that reflect on Mary's faith from the first chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke as the themes for World Youth Day 2017-2019. This year and next, World Youth Day will be celebrated on a local level -- on Palm Sunday at the Vatican -- and in 2019 it will be an international gathering in Panama.
The pope reminded young people that another event, the Synod of Bishops in 2018, will also help them to reflect on how they "live the experience of faith in the midst of the challenges of our time."
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