The attention to the youth has a preferential place in the apostolate of our Religious Family. We organize different activities for the youth: festive oratories, courses for university students, camps, pilgrimages, courses of Catholic formation, not to mention the preaching of the Spiritual Exercises.
Regarding Oratories, Bl. John Paul II said, “The Oratory was born from the faith and the genius of St. Philip Neri, who knew how to harmoniously synthesize the charismatic dimension and full communion with the pastors of the Church. In the Rome of his time, he met the spiritual and material needs of the youth with great wisdom, testifying to the joyous dimension of faith to such an extent that he was considered the prophet of Christian joy.”
The festive Oratory is a fervently religious and morally sound environment, which involves the youth in his entire being in order to orient him with depth and decisiveness to possess eternal life, in a climate of religiosity, of joy, and of free youthful growth. It is a proper and true educative work, efficacious in the redemption of the individual, and open to everyone.
The Oratory has no schedules. It must fill the free times of a youth’s life, saturating it with possibilities, with joy, with human and heavenly values, with formation and fun, with instruction and edification.
Joy is essential to the spirit of the Oratory. It is to clothe Christian life with festivity. It is the joy that springs from the possession of what one loves. Only he who rejoices in love truly rejoices. “Where there is rejoicing in charity, there is true celebration .”
Another example is the Courses for University Students. It is important to understand the needs of young university students in these times, since they receive numerous attacks in the centers of studies themselves. Moreover, today we see that Catholic professionals suffer terrible pressure that tries to break their very consciences. This discouragement and pressure can often lead to the claudication of the best Christians. Thus it is necessary to remember some objectives of the Course:
- To provide a setting where Catholic students can acquire a Christian formation in the fields that they study
- To render possible the formation of Catholic groups for concrete action.
- To seek Christian answers to actual problems in the area of human sciences.
- To strengthen and encourage students in the defense of Catholic principles and to provide the opportunity to meet other youth who think and desire the same.
- To enrich one’s cultural knowledge
We organize many other activities in our different missions, including volunteer work.