BOOK LAUNCH SPEECH FOR MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND

St. Mary’s Cathedral Hall, Sydney

Thank you, Fr John, for your gracious words; you are over-generous to me. God bless you for all you and your brothers do to model faith and vocation to young people throughout Australia. My thanks also to Fr Goonan and St Paul’s publications.

I have a swirling mass of memories from WYD-SYD-08, some of which I shared with the organisers at an event last night and some of which I recalled in our Mass tonight, so I won’t rehearse them here. What these many memories have in common were the clear signs of God’s grace active amongst us, the passion and sheer hard work of the leaders, staff and volunteers who made it happen, and the beautiful response in faith, hope and love of our young people. But we did all this, not just for 2008, but for 2018, ’28, ’38 and beyond. We did it for you and for your peers and young children, as much as for your older brothers and sisters who were there. My little book of letters is not a book of memories so much as a book of dreams, looking forward to the Church and the world that will be made by you and your generation under grace. For every day is a youth day in Sydney and every day brings its puzzles and promise!

In Jesus’ day infant mortality rates were high and few reached old age: so most people were young adults; it’s still like that today in much of the developing world. Yet in modern Australia, young adults (and those of us who are a bit older) live alongside a larger cohort both of those younger and those older than them. ‘Alongside’ us, I say, rather than among us, because all too often the very old and very young today are not missing so much as rendered invisible – and even disposed of by abortion or euthanasia. As St John Paul II once observed and Pope Francis has repeated, we need to recover ‘the covenant between the generations’ as a major propriety of social justice and peace. The innocence of childhood and the wisdom of old age have their parts to play in the lives of us young and middling adults. But if we are to renew the social fabric of Australia and regain confidence and credibility for the Church, the enthusiasm and positivity of young people will be crucial.

The Church becomes grey haired, less imaginative and energetic, and ultimately boring for one reason above all: that you and your peers are not there. We need you to bridge the generations and cement them together: to promise the very young and reassure the very old of the adventure of the Gospel. People sometimes say that Mass attendance isn’t everything, and that’s true; but it’s the essential base for some much else. It’s where we hear the Gospel and are confronted with our mission and ourselves; it’s where we feed on the Eucharist and so are empowered to enact our mission and truly be ourselves. So we need you to get your mates to that first base, and then to help guide them beyond first base. How do we do this? Amongst the many resources of prayer, contemplation and action out there to help you, I hope my little book will be one you find helpful.

The Church has received well-deserved criticism for the harm and neglect of young people during the sexual abuse crisis of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. I am all-too-aware of this and deeply shamed by it; I apologize again and again for it, and am determined to make up for it as best we can and to ensure such failures are never repeated. And I confess that the Church has often let young people down in other ways too: in not offering them attractive reasons to hope and persuasive reasons to believe, in not making our liturgies or parish life as welcoming to you as they should be, in not engaging you in projects of justice and service that profoundly shape your faith and identity as they should. I am all-too-aware of this and deeply shamed by it; I apologize again and again for it, and am determined to make up for it as best we can and to ensure such failures are never repeated. So three last thoughts for you.

First, young people are natural thinkers. Through childhood and our teens the brain grows at a remarkable rate and we can soak up vast amounts of knowledge. The challenge is to slow down and quieten down, enough to digest it all, exercise our critical judgement, sort out what’s really worthwhile. In the Introduction to my book I mention the French diplomat and bishop Talleyrand who, while on an urgent mission, is said to have shouted out to his driver, “Slow up, slow up, I’m in a hurry!” What he meant, of course, was that by going too fast the driver risked damaging or even overturning the carriage, and thus delaying or even wrecking the whole trip. Sometimes it’s better to take your time, to take some quiet time, to take some God and me time, and think through what really matters. Whatever google prompts, it’s important to think deep, not just quick.

Secondly, young people are natural do-ers, actors. While we are young, healthy, strong we want to do things, to make changes, make a difference. We know that when help is needed young men and women can become heroes, sacrificing comfort and convenience to save the day. So not only should you think deep, you should also think big. Think in terms of your country, your Church, the whole natural world and the whole social world. Think cosmological! Social action taken by young people regularly made a difference in the twentieth-century battles against totalitarians, ideology and disease. Where is the human person threatened today and where can you individually but perhaps especially banded together with your mates, act to help free people from the tyranny or degradation?

Thirdly, you literally have the future on your shoulders: make this a mission and not a burden. Be mission in action, not missing in action. Some people find the burden of the future too much, and end up isolated, depressed, self-harming. But if the future of the Church and the world has been put into your hands it is as a sacred trust, and God entrust nothing to us without the wherewithal to do great things. It is your time in history to make the Christian mission uniquely yours. So take up the load bravely and show old guys like me how much better you can do things!

So my dear young friends, I offer you this book of 40 letters on calling and listening, on faith and reason, on vulnerability and courage, or remembering and dreaming, on justice and worship, on science and culture, on misery and mercy, on leadership and discipleship, above all on your relationship with the God who risked everything to seek you out and love you. Hopefully, one day you will write a letter back to me and tell me not about my little book but yours: the autobiography you are writing now with God in the years of your youth, the unique chapter you are contributing to the greatest love-story ever told.