Netherlands: youth, a national WYD planned for January 2021

The date of the second Dutch national youth meeting has been announced today: it will be the weekend of 29th to 31st January 2021 on the isle of Ameland. The first of such events took place in 2019 to make the Danish boys and girls who could not go to Panama meet for the so-called “WJD@home”, “WYD at home”. Such moment was “a great success, with over one hundred people”, as explained by Desiree Bühler, in charge of the Youth Pastoral service of the diocese of Rotterdam, and “aroused great enthusiasm, not just in the young visitors but in all those who had worked to organise it and in the bishops”. That’s why a continuation and a new meeting for young people aged 15 and older has been planned. Buses will be organised, to pick the young people from their dioceses and drive them to board the ferry for the isle of Ameland on the Friday evening, when moments of exchange, catechesis, spaces of dialogue and partying will begin, inspired by the theme “Get up, I appoint you a witness to the things which you have seen”. “This theme is associated with Pope Francis, and it is one of the themes that pave the way to the World Youth Day in Portugal (2023)”, Desirée explains, themes that, as usual, “have to do with getting up and get moving”: “Supporting faith, investing in one’s relation with God, and moving towards one’s neighbours will be what the weekend will be focussed on”.
Valentina Bombelli