World Youth Day and the media.

This article by Father Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., director of World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, is based on a talk he gave at a pro-life dinner on November 14, 2003. Every single day of the long preparation for the event, he relates, he invoked the help of Gianna Molla, an Italian lady who died in 1962 after a life of heroic virtue and who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1994. She will be canonized in 2004.--Editor

One of the greatest manifestations for life took place in Toronto from July 22-29, 2002, during World Youth Day 2002. From the earliest moments of the planning, through the historic pilgrimage of the World Youth Day Cross throughout Canada, to the great events in Toronto last July, we feasted our eyes and attuned our ears and set our hearts clearly on the Gospel of Life.

What happened during World Youth Day 2002? How did we proclaim to the world the Good News of the Gospel of Life? Here are some of the operative questions that we dealt with as a national staff preparing for the event: questions that would be part of each of the catechetical sessions, the service projects, the long hours of pilgrimage, the moments of quiet prayer, the great ceremonies when the young people of the world gathered around Pope John Paul II and heard his stirring challenges to become "the people of the Beatitudes" and "the builders of a new civilization of love, justice, and peace."

Through the World Youth Day experience, we learned once again that if we are Catholic, and a people for life, then we must accept each other as a gift from God, given by the Lord and made over and consecrated to the Lord.

Culture of Life

When people ask, "Whose life is it?", we must be ready to answer from the depths of our belief: "It is God's and God's alone!" We must choose the Gospel of Life and the Culture of Life as our way of life. The Gospel of Life is not for believers alone: it is for everyone.

At World Youth Day 2002, we discovered powerfully that the issue of life and its defence and promotion is not a concern of Christians alone. Although faith provides special light and strength, this question arises in every human conscience which seeks the truth and which cares about the future of humanity. Life certainly has a sacred and religious value, but in no way is that value a concern only of believers. The value at stake is one which every human being can grasp by the light of reason; thus it necessarily concerns everyone.

World Youth Day was a public manifestation for life. To be actively pro-life is to contribute to the renewal of society through the promotion of the common good. It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop. There can be no true peace unless life is defended and promoted. Listen to the prophetic words of Pope Paul VI:

   "Every crime against life is an attack on peace, especially if
   it strikes at the moral conduct of people ... But where human
   rights are truly professed and publicly recognized and defended,
   peace becomes the joyful and operative climate of life in society."

If the Catholic community professes to be pro-life, we must be sure that our ethic for life is a consistent one. The Catholic Church offers a teaching on the inviolability, the sacredness, the dignity, of the human person. Opposition to abortion and euthanasia does not excuse indifference to those who suffer from poverty, violence, and injustice: "Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the dignity of the human person such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself, whatever insults human dignity such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children, disgraceful working conditions where people are treated as instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible persons, ... all of these things and more poison human society" (John Paul II, The Splendour of Truth).

Culture of Death

We are facing the emergence of a culture which denies solidarity and takes the form of a veritable "culture of death". This culture is actively fostered by powerful cultural, economic, and political currents, which encourage an idea of society exclusively concerned with efficiency. It is a war of the powerful against the weak. There is no room in the world for anyone who, like the unborn or the dying, is a weak element in the social structure, or anyone who appears completely at the mercy of others and radically dependent on them and can only communicate through the silent language of profound sharing of affection. Abortion is the most serious wound inflicted not only on individuals and their families, who should provide the sanctuary for life, but inflicted as well on society and its culture, by the very people who ought to be society's promoters and defenders.

World Media

One of the amazing things that happened last summer was that the media of the world--over 4000 of them--came to Toronto and Canada and climbed our trees to peer down onto this incredible story unfolding before them. The image that remains engraved in my mind from all of that frenetic activity is the story of Zaccheus. The media climbed high in the trees and watched. And as Jesus and his hundreds of thousands of young disciples passed--one by one the skeptical and the curious climbed down from the branches and became part of the great pilgrimage.

Many accredited journalists to the event were criticized by their more skeptical colleagues: "You went overboard, you crossed over, you lost professional objectivity--you became part of the story." They came to see the Pope--they ended up meeting Jesus. They wept--they were moved, they made new friends. Previous theories of a young faithless, godless generation were dashed and new ones were formulated. In journalism, one may call this a loss of objectivity. In our business of the Church, we call it evangelization, transformation, and conversion. They simply wanted to touch what they had heard and seen with their own eyes. And they did.

When the Gospel of Life is proclaimed in all of its purity and clarity, it entices, draws closer, invites, and enlightens. We may choose to speak of WYD as something in the past--that brightened the shadows and monotony of our lives at one shining moment in history in 2002. Against a world background of terror and fear, economic collapse, and ecclesial scandals, World Youth Day presented an alternative vision of compelling beauty. Some have called those golden days of July 2002 a "Camelot" moment. That is one way to consider the WYD--fading memories of an extraordinary moment in Canadian history when we gathered together as a Church and proclaimed from the rooftops the Gospel of Life.

Blessed Gianna Molla

Finally, I want to share with you one of the great friends and patrons of our World Youth Day whom I invoked every single day during the long months and weeks of preparation, and during the event itself. She is a true model for all of us who stand on the side of life, and struggle for life each day. I encourage you to get to know Blessed Gianna Molla, an eloquent model of life, holiness, and virtue in our day.

Gianna Beretta Molla was born in Magenta (Milan), Italy, on October 4, 1922, the 10th of 13 children. After earning degrees in medicine and surgery from the University of Pavia in 1949, she opened a medical clinic in Mesero (near Magenta) in 1950. She specialized in pediatrics at the University of Milan in 1952 and thereafter gave special attention to mothers, babies, the elderly, and the poor. She became engaged to Pietro Molla and they were married on September 24, 1955. In November 1956, to her great joy, she became the mother of Pierluigi; in December 1957 of Mariolina; in July 1959 of Laura. In September 1961, towards the end of the second month of pregnancy with her fourth child, Gianna had to make a heroic decision. Physicians diagnosed a serious fibroma in the uterus that required surgery. The surgeon suggested that Gianna undergo an abortion in order to save her own life. A few days before the child was due, she was ready to give her life in order to save that of her child: "If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose the child--I insist on it. Save the baby." On the morning of April 21, 1962, Gianna Emanuela was born.

Despite all efforts and treatments to save both of them, on the morning of April 28, the mother died. She was 39 years old. Her husband, Pietro, described Gianna's life as "an act of perennial action of faith and charity: it was a non-stop search for the will of God for every decision and for every work, with prayer and meditation, Holy Mass and the Eucharist."

Virtuous people know what to do because of their informed conscience. This means that the person is living a morally good life and her decisions flow from a developed instinct for making truly human decisions. This type of person no longer does the good out of a sense of obligation, but rather looks for opportunities to do the good. Gianna Molla's action was heroic. The Pope, in the beatification ceremony, said that her witness was a hymn of life and reflected that "such an action was possible only after a life of preparation." We are being called to heroism by our choice of life, by our Baptism, to live Gospel values fully to have an essential commitment to the Christ of the poor. Most of us are not ready for heroic action: our lives have not readied us for it. But we can and must take the next step in preparation for surrender of self. Let us ask Blessed Gianna to give us the courage to take the next step.

Father Tom Rosica is the CEO of the Salt and ight television channel.