| Mexico – Youcat, a resource for the young |
| Spain – On the way to the WYD, with the web |
Coming from an idea of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference and thanks to the work of a team of theologians supervised by the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, “Youcat” responds to the wishes of the young people themselves to have the key points of the Catechism in a faithful but modern presentation, as Cardinal Schönborn explained to the “Osservatore Romano”
“The first draft was the work of German speaking theologians and educationalists.Then the text was carefully examinied by some young people during two summer camps. Thanks to this “trial run” the text became really adapted to today’s way of thinking, so that even the pictures come from young people. The book reflects youth culture deeply imbued with the fruitful seeds of the Gospel”.
With over 300 pages it is in four sections: “What do we believe”; “the celebration of the Christian mystery”, “ life in Christ” and “prayer in the Christian life”.
Youcat also has a preface by Benedict XVI; in it the Pope, using a modern metaphor encourages the young to know their own faith “with the same precision that an expert in computers knows the operating system” and he invites them to study the catechism in silence, to read it in groups and study networks and to discuss on the internet.
Published in 17 languages, including German, English French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Arabic and Chinese, 700,000 copies have already been printed to be put in the backpacks which all those taking part in the WYD will receive at the beginning of the event.
The name “Youcat”, it has been explained comes from the word “Ju-Kat”, which in German corresponds to the initial letters for Youth and Catechism; but it also could refer to the English pronoun “you” in this way inviting all the young people to feel involved in WYD with their lives and their faith.
Published 05/05/2011
