• Hospitality in families and/or in facilities which foster interpersonal relations;
• Encounter with the Bishop of the diocese offering hospitality;
• Celebration and meeting with the community offering hospitality;
• Closure of the celebrations if possible on August13th, in order to reach Rome by August 14th and 15th.

THE ROLE OF THE ITALIAN DIOCESES

Through the experience of hosting in different Italian dioceses we want to help young people mature in their Christian faith and life. It is impossible to be authentic Christians without developing the ability to welcome others, to forget ourselves and open the door of our hearts and our homes to allow others to enter and share our lives.

This is the testimony of numerous young people who have already had this experience. In the end those who benefit most are the Christian communities and the young people who offer the welcome: the young hosts are filled with a new spirit which enables them to work together and be bearers of hope; the Christian community for its part is helped to rediscover the gifts and riches of its tradition of faith and culture.

This is truly a valuable opportunity for our dioceses and parishes, to know more about the riches of faith and traditions of other local Churches often evangelized by Italian missionaries.

HOSTING IN ITALIAN DIOCESES

Hosting in Italian dioceses will take place between the 10 and 14 August 2000. The guests will be young non Italians on their way to Rome for the celebration of World Youth Day.

All expenses, lodging and meals, will be paid by the hosting diocese.

Almost every diocese in Italy has offered to host the young people except those nearest to Rome (Albano, Civita Castellana, Civitavecchia, Frascati, Frosinone, Latina, Palestrina, Porto S. Rufina, Sabina Poggio Mirteto, Tivoli, Velletri Segni) which will host the young pilgrims during the 15^th World Youth Day proper, 14-20 August.

The purpose of the initiative is to offer these young non Italians the chance to come into close contact with the life of a Christian community in Italy and the faith experience of young Italians of their own age to know more about them, be enriched by the heritage of culture and faith of the community, and to make or strengthen bonds of friendship and brotherhood. In the light of these considerations, we indicate some characteristics which hosting in the Italians dioceses will assume:

a) A joyful welcome under the banner of pilgrimage

A meeting among young people is always a happy event and the same will be true of the welcome offered to foreign youngsters in Italian dioceses. But the event will have a wider context, consisting in availability, reflection, dialogue, testimony given and received, respect for traditions. Care will be taken to underline the aspect of pilgrimage of the passage of these young people on their way to Rome. Under this aspect accommodation will be simple, true to a pilgrimage.

b) A meeting of Church, experience of faith, with the Celebration of the Eucharist at the centre.

This event will not only be for the young people, or youth pastoral it will be for the whole local Church, the Bishop, priests and committed laity, the local people and of course young believers.

As a meeting of pilgrims with the Church it will be nourished by moments of church life: listening to the Word, prayers, gestures of brotherhood and service. All this in ways to suit young people. The central moment of communion in the faith will be the celebration of the Eucharist which includes listening, praise, accepting the gifts of God, thanksgiving and sharing. Each particular Church will plan its own celebration presided by the Bishop, in which the young pilgrims and the local community will meet.

c) Meeting with the local signs of the faith in the places and the life of the local community.

Every diocese in Italy has its own story of faith and culture to discover, in the signs left in writings, monuments and other works of art and local customs and traditions, in the people’s way of life and character. Each Church will certainly find creative ways of fostering this encounter with its faith. It may be a short pilgrimage to a well known place, a celebration or prayer vigil in which to live the memory of faith, a march or procession to places famous for Christian experience of the past, a visit to centres of church life today, such as charity centres. etc.

The local church community will host the young visitors, but the event should involve the whole civil community although obviously young people more directly.

In any case care will be taken to ensure that the visit of these young people from far away countries is not a closed event, it must open to allow maximum collaboration and involvement of all the territory.

INDICATIONS FOR HOSTING IN ITALIAN DIOCESE

Setting up a diocesan committee of commission for the GMG

As soon as possible a GMG committee should be set up.

If the diocese has a jubilee committee (not only on paper, but an active body) it would be better to create the GMG commission within this committee instead of setting up a new one.

The Bishop should establish this committee or commission with an official letter appointing members selected on the basis of competence and abilities. This is also an opportunity to involve people usually in the margin of the community, who are anxious to offer their services in various areas.

According to the number of young people to be hosted, the committee/commission, under the presidency of the Bishop and the co-ordination of the diocesan delegate for youth pastoral or hosting the young people, should be composed of people who will assume the following tasks:

·        liaison with public authorities (prefecture, province, town-councils, police…) for all the necessary documents and permits.

·        animation of community meetings and liturgical celebrations

·        animation of entertainment (moments of common festivity)

·        technical assistance (stages, sound, lights)

·        translations and interpreting, preparation of booklets

·        images (publicising the event) information (statements, PR with local press and T V)

·        medical assistance

·        logistics (community meetings, meals)

·        administration (funds collection, sponsors, contributions)

·        transport (necessary means, parking for community events)

·        volunteers

The committee/commission should include Religious men and women for the animation and involve the local Religious Institutes and also members of local youth movements, church or civil.

Working time

The diocese’s GMG commission must be set up by September 1999.

Contact must be made immediately with all public offices involved (mayors of towns, police, provincial offices). These offices can help in several important aspects, not least funding, but they need to be given time. A series of meetings should be planned, which will be more frequent as the time for the hosting the young people approaches,

By Christmas families should have been invited to host the young people.

This opportunity, besides solving logistic and economic problems (meals and lodging), is an enriching experience for the families. Ways of inviting the families to offer accommodation are: posters, letter from the Bishop read and distributed in church on Sunday, local paper notices, radio and TV statements, via internet. The places chosen to host the young people should be various, (not only central parishes but also those in the suburbs and rural area) which are easy to reach. Care should be taken to avoid breaking up the groups (choose places which can host at least 30 to 50 young people) and to organize transport.

Twinning

Every diocese should welcome young people from different countries, to allow an authentic experience of universal Church, and in any case the Comitato Italian will assign the groups.

Here below are the indications given to dioceses of the world and leaders of church movements and associations regarding twinning with Italian dioceses:

·        Hosting in the Italian diocese is for the period 10 –14 August 2000

·        Each Italian diocese will host groups of different nationalities. If a diocese has a large group of young GMG participants it should form smaller groups (about 200/300 maximum 500) to go a diocese in the same region of Italy.

·        Accommodation, lodging and meals will be entirely at the expense of the hosting diocese. You will have to pay for travel to and from Italy, to the hosting diocese and to Rome.

·        The programme for the four days will be planned by the committee for diocesan hosting together with the head of the guest group leader

·        The Italian diocese in which you wish to stay may be contacted through the Comitato Italiano, as indicated in the form, or through direct contact which can be made immediately. However the final choice must be made in agreement with the Comitato Italiano, which must be informed.

·        Definitive assigning of twinning can be done now and must be completed by the end of March 2000.