Pope Francis’ Message to the Ecumenical Youth Group: “We Need Each Other” and “Protect the Earth”

On December 30, 2021, Pope Francis sent a special message during the 44th European Youth Meeting held by the Taize Community. The Taize Youth Meetings are annual ecumenical gatherings created for young people between the ages of 17 and 30. Every year, these 5-day ecumenical gatherings, called the European Young Adult Meetings and the International Young Adult Meetings, are held in different locations throughout the world.

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Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists and Waldenses make up the youth group. The names of the congregations represented in the Taize ecumenical event can be found in the Facebook post above. Despite the fact that the event was originally scheduled for December 28, 2021 to January 1, 2022, and that Pope Francis sent his greetings today, the official gathering has been postponed to July 2022, when the ecumenical youth will meet in Turin, Italy, because of the pandemic.

Even the official journal of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Italy praised the ecumenical youth event in which Adventists would take part. The following announcement was made by Adventists in Italy:

“Turin, Taizé, 2021 – The ‘Pilgrimage of Trust on Earth’ of the young people of Europe will be held in Turin between Christmas and New Year’s Eve of 2021 … The New Year’s initiative was born in the context of the Turin ecumenical commitment. The first invitation dates back to 2017, and was signed by the heads of the Waldensian, Baptist, Romanian Orthodox, Evangelical Lutheran, Adventist Churches together with Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia and with the heads of the Catholic and Evangelical Commissions for Ecumenism, the Ecumenical Activities Secretariat and the young people of the groups that refer to Taizé.” [1]

So what was the message that Pope Francis gave to the ecumenical youth group, which was read by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State? Basically, the Pope commended their safe keeping to the Virgin Mary:

“The Holy Father asks the Holy Spirit to bless you, the Young Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants, who are joining the European meeting in thought and prayer, and he entrusts you to the protection of the Virgin Mary. May you continue to be pilgrims of trust wherever the lord sends you!” [2]

The Pope also told the young people from the different faiths that they all “need each other:”

“It is when we are together that the Spirit of God breathes in a special way. With the current Synod, the Catholic Church is also seeking to make herself more available to the work of the Spirit by inviting Christ’s disciples to discover how much we need each other.” [2]

In addition, Pope Francis called on the youth to take on the role of protecting the earth:

“Your meeting is taking place at a time of great concern. Many people are asking themselves: does our planet have a future? What responsibilities do we have to assume in order to safeguard it and make the earth habitable? At a time of increasing polarization, how can we, in accordance with your theme for the coming year, ‘become artisans of unity’?” [2]

Entrusting our youth to the Virgin Mary? Needing the other churches? Becoming the protectors of the planet? Is this what we want to expose our Adventist youth to? Is this the kind of indoctrination we want to give them? This, brothers and sisters, goes WAY beyond anything we have seen in Adventism. The precious historic faith is being destroyed from within. We are pushing our young people over the precipice. The official Adventist magazine in Italy is promoting Rome’s propaganda and forcing this evil upon the children.

Satan isn’t simply knocking on the church’s door; he’s already entered! He has taken on positions of trust, and he is attempting to neutralize and undermine our faith in the Three Angels’ Messages, which, if taught, would expose Satan’s deceptions. Sadly, we are repeating the errors of ancient Israel, but our situation is worse because we should have learned from their mistakes:

“But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.” Psalm 106:35-39.

“It was by associating with idolaters and joining in their festivities that the Hebrews were led to transgress God’s law and bring His judgments upon the nation. So now it is by leading the followers of Christ to associate with the ungodly and unite in their amusements that Satan is most successful in alluring them into sin. ‘Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean.’ 2 Corinthians 6:17. God requires of His people now as great a distinction from the world, in customs, habits, and principles, as He required of Israel anciently. If they faithfully follow the teachings of His word, this distinction will exist; it cannot be otherwise. The warnings given to the Hebrews against assimilating with the heathen were not more direct or explicit than are those forbidding Christians to conform to the spirit and customs of the ungodly” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 458).

Sources

[1] https://www.avvenire.it/chiesa/pagine/taize-2021-torino

[2] https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2021/documents/20211230-messaggio-taize.html