Pope Francis blesses youths ahead of a prayer vigil on the occasion of the World Youth Days, in Campus Misericordiae in Brzegi, near Krakow, Poland, Saturday, July 30, 2016. The 79-year-old Francis has had an unrelenting schedule since he arrived in Poland on Wednesday for World Youth Days, a global Catholic gathering which culminates Sunday. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) 
The Catholic Church must be a place of justice and mercy, and its members must be catalysts for change, some young observers have said at the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican.
“In order to teach justice and mercy to our young people, the Church must first be a place of justice and mercy for our young people,” said Joseph Moeono-Kolio from Samoa, who was representing the Caritas Internationalis Youth Forum and young people from the Pacific Islands.
He asked the synod what young people could do about uprooting injustice from the world “when we can’t do it within our own churches?”
The problem of clerical sexual abuse and corruption are present in his region, he said, but “reporting it or even speaking of it here is professional and cultural suicide”.
“Young people are tired of pharisees, we need fathers,” he said.
Moeono-Kolio used an analogy for how he would like to see young people and elders live and work together. When his ancestors would sail from island to island, he said, strong young people were put in charge of paddling while the elders on board were in charge of reading the stars in the sky and the ocean currents in order to guide the boat to their common destination.
Whether it is the Pacific Ocean or today’s sea of challenges, he said, “until we start paddling together by way of listening and equipping our young people with the tools to navigate the inevitable storms, our canoe will only float into irrelevance”.
“But if you, our elders, set the right course and steer this canoe in the right direction, we the young faithful are ready to help you power it through the challenges” and bring the light of Faith to the ends of the world, he said.
