There is someone – within the Sacred Palaces – that makes this question: is this message for the World Day of Peace the most adequate to be sent to governmental and diplomatic representation of all the world? Is not the message – albeit so theologically rooted – just something more than a good homework, a scholastic composition on the topic of Educating young people to justice and peace? It is still fresh in memory what happened with the last document released by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the note titled “Towards reforming the international financial and monetary system in the context of global public authority”: the note had been approved – after amending it – by the Vatican State Secretariat, and then disowned, subjected and polemics born within the Roman Curia and leaked in improbable versions to the press (then partially contradicted).

The message for the World Day of Peace had been profusely amended by the Vatican State Secretariat. Anyway, the original “spirit” of the message remained so   untouched that Turkson and Toso – holding the press conference to present the message – had been able to explicit item by item what in the message remained implied. And it would be sufficient to read the last public speech held by mons. Toso – at the opening of the School of Peace in Este – to find out that that speech was full of many of the topics issued during the press conference. Was that text inspired to the first sketch of the message? Or was it just the deep explanation of what the message ought tell the world?

Benedict XVI launched an appeal to young people in the Message for the World Day of Peace: «Realize that you yourselves are an example and an inspiration to adults, even more so to the extent that you seek to overcome injustice and corruption and strive to build a better future. Be aware of your potential; never become self-centred but work for a brighter future for all. You are never alone. The Church has confidence in you, follows you, encourages you and wishes to offer you the most precious gift she has: the opportunity to raise your eyes to God, to encounter Jesus Christ, who is himself justice and peace».

Noting a «rising sense of frustration» at the worldwide economic recession, Pope Benedict XVI said that a more just and peaceful world requires «adequate mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth». The message laments that «some currents of modern culture, built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and solidarity». Authentic education, Benedict XVI writes, teaches the proper use of freedom with «respect for oneself and others, including those whose way of being and living differs greatly from one’s own». Peace-making requires education not only in the values of compassion and solidarity, but in the importance of wealth redistribution, the «promotion of growth, cooperation for development and conflict resolution». The Pope also calls on political leaders to «ensure that no one is ever denied access to education».

One topic – that is maybe the true revolution of the Papal words – is fundamental: young people must be educated to peace, but they have to educate as well. Italian Catholic politician Giorgio La Pira used to say that «young people are the swallow that announce spring». Toso glosses: «We find in young people a fresh intuition of what the big values are: they can find the way to make an air blast».

Card. Turkson remembered that the drafting of the message «was marked by a series of manifestation of young people from almost all the European capitals. The young’s attitude at the beginning of the last years had been pessimistic and despaired. The frustration for the economical crisis grew up. Now, we know that the roots of this crisis are more in cultural and moral than in economical issues. Young people are not bodies isolated and separated from the rest of society. They, on the contrary, are the most vital part of the human family, and we must listen to their request that too often remain uncome up. The worries expressed by too many young people mean the wish to watch with hope to the future».

«Also journalists – mons. Toso remarked – should question themselves about what they can do for justice and peace. There is the need of a non mediocre education, which in fact is. Benedict XVI repeatedly invited to raise up new generations, and he did not tell it only for what concerns the political world: he also referred to people that work in economy, in finance. We need to educate citizens, political administrator, cultured people in all the fields, included the communication branch. We need that the various knowledges help the search for truth, strengthen the wish for the common good, become place where the dignity of human being is respected».

In the message, the word democracy is never mentioned. Otherwise, mons. Toso underline it several times. «The responsibles of the several cultural and social institutions – he says – must take care of their institutions in order the same institutions are instructional and right, since democracy need to be right to educate. The message for the World Day of Peace relates to what the encyclical Pacem in terris issued. Do we really want to build a substantial democracy? Do we really want to build a new international order? If so, we have to educate to freedom, justice, truth and love. In the human catastrophe, when education is emergency, the Pope invites us to work seriously to build the pillars of the New Humanism. We should look at the important speeches held by Benedict XVI (the ones in Germany, the one in Westminster) in which the Pope talks about the reformation of the State,  and this latter must be a State based on the rule of law, that involves religious freedom for everybody. The teaching of Benedict XVI may have been forgotten, so it is important to pose it again, since his speeches are crucial to reform the institutions. Young people that moved the Arab Spring  letted understand that there cannot be social justice if there is not democracy, and there cannot be democracy if there is not social justice. Democracy does not exist without justice, and justice must not lose its trascendant roots. We must watch out for moving the consciences on national, international, cooperation and conflict resolution issues. This must be applied to the current world situation, and must be linked to the present national and international issues, as for example to the problem of wealth redistribution in a global context. That is why there must be a global social justice. What does moving the consciences mean if not commit in order to let social subjects understand the problems of biblical migrations, of poverty, of external debt, of the fall of dictatorial regimes?»

Not only the Third World Countries are affected by the problem of the search for a true democracy. In Western countries – as Ralf Dahrendorf and his thought on post-democracy demonstrates – we are now going to a oligarchical populistic democracy.

And what about the intergenerational exchange? «It is implicit in the message – Toso answers – but it is definitely not the point. We are not talking about a simple substitution. It is about preparing a new generation with an integral education, to give their contribution to a world of peace».

Madrid. One million and a half of young people gather together to meet with the Pope. Can it be considered the triumph of Catholicism in Spain? Zapatero – a self confessed agnostic – profoundly changed the mood of Spain during the eight years of his administration. Quick divorce, gay marriages, decriminalization of abortion, no limits in-vitro fertilization had been some of the main points of Zapatero’s policy. Spain went under an unprecedented laicization. Religions had to be out of the public life, and that is why a few young people began the so-called war of chapels, making irruption in the University Chapels at the moment of the consecration.

In fact, Spain is still a profoundly Catholic country. The evangelical movement – as John Allen put it – is still strong there. Catholic religion is part of the Spanish history, and nobody seems to forget it when the pasos pass through the Spanish towns during the Good Friday, or in occasions of the several and Catholic feasts that held in Spain. On the other hand, there is a hard challenge to face for the Spanish Church: to encourage the faith and strengthen it, because the agnostic, atheistic, anti-Catholic movements are becoming strong and well organized.

During the first day of the Wyd, a group of indignados attacked a procession of faithful: eight of them had been arrested. Who are the indignados? The movement was born after an hatred anti-piracy legislation of Zapatero administration. The legislation was just a symbol: there is the 40 per cent young unemployment in Spain, and the economic crisis radically changed young expectation for the future. This generation view in the free download one of the last rights they can have, when they usually are obliged to accept a job under the level of their skill or – even worse – not to work at all. At the beginning, indignados did not have a manifesto. When the manifesto arrived, it was evident to many that indignados movement had been infiltrated by ideas different from the original ones. Indignados manifesto was coloured with anticlericalism, seeing the Church as one of the powers that suffocate the young generation. Now that the national elections are up to come, there is a movement of young people that does not want to stay with the Partido Popular, nor with the Partido Socialista, and that refuses the Church.

The news is that Rodriguez Zapatero, head of the Partido Socialista and premier until November, 20^th, tried to fight his fall of prestige by meeting the Pope. No surprise for the official meeting, which is part of the duties and the ceremonial of the head of a National Government. It was more surprising that he was present at the arrival of the Pope, even if it would not have to be there. During the flight, the Pope affirmed that  «the economy cannot function as a self-regulated economy. Man must be at the economy’s centre, which is not profit but solidarity».

When Zapatero and the Pope officially met, they talked about economy again. There were no tensions  during the meeting. Actually, the first four years of the Zapatero administration were indeed tense ones for Church-state relations. The prime minister’s social reform agenda inevitably angered the Church. The country’s bishops, led by  Cardinal José María Rouco Varela, responded with verbal broadsides, such as accusing the government of allowing «the elimination of half a million children» with the abortion reform. They also took the extraordinary step of barging further into the political arena by leading mass marches against gay marriage.

But in the last three or four years, relations have improved. The government has not followed through on electoral promises such as a euthanasia law and a reform of the religious freedom law (which, for example, means that those being sworn into public office do so in front of a crucifix). The «dignified death» bill which has replaced the euthanasia proposal has still riled the bishops, but the government reportedly pulled back from presenting the latter due to pressure from the Church. Abandoning the religious freedom law may be more due to other priorities, such as the economy, and that’s why Zapatero withdrew it after meeting with Benedict XVI. Is the Catholic Spain going to resurge?

The secularization movement that shaked all of Europe now is seeming to show its limit. In Hungary, a party of Catholic inspiration won the election and promoted a new Constitution founded on Christian roots. In Finland, Timo Soini, a Catholic nationalist leader, gained the 12 percent of the poll in Finland. Where the secularization was more aggressive, there a Catholic spirit as able to survive.

It happened in Madrid. In a country shocked by the economic crisis, Catholic resisted just like the Escorial, the big-fortress monastery where the Pope held two speeches, to the young members of religious orders and to the young Catholic teachers. El Escorial is a symbolic place for Spain. There King Charles V died. He retired  at El Escorial after having reigned and made of Spain the biggest kingdom in the world.

The last big Catholic king decided to leave is crown, and to pray the rest of his life. Many think of him as a saint. A few remember that he did reinforce his kingdom, but – in order to do it – he had to make wars and securing loans from several banks. When he left his crown, the kingdom was already in bankrupt. So, he decided to retire, and to pray.

Zapatero is now going to retire, and probably he will not go to pray. Many catholics see in its failure the symbol of what will be of the humanity if the values are exchanged with the profits, and when the individual rights become more important than the right of a community. The message the Pope gave to the young people is to «say ‘yes’ to God, build on the rock, and do not listen to promises of artificial and passing paradises». More than one million and a half people was ready to listen to it. The Christianity – evangelical, strong in its identity, brought on from the bottom – is probably now. Madrid signed in some way the evangelical turn of the Church. Is it the beginning of the resurgence of religion in Europe?