Wednesday, March 01, 2006

New fervor among young Italian Catholics

A good article to start lent out (link)

I liked the quote:


But the tide is turning in Italy. Nearly half of adult Catholics attend mass at least weekly, up from 35 percent who did so in 1980.

Clergy credit much of young people's interest in Catholicism to the late
Pope John Paul II, stressing the impact of the World Youth Days he started in 1984. Catholic fervor reached a crescendo with his death in April 2005. "This pope really brought the faith closer to young people; there was a strong bond between him and us," affirms Giovanna, a young biologist praying by John Paul II's tomb in Rome.


John Paul II did a great deal for the Catholic faith as it relates to young people. I grew up with him as pope and I never doubted that he cared for all of us. And by knowing that, how could I doubt that God cared so much more.

3 comments:

Bent El Neel said...

Hi David
I hope you don't mind me asking after the fact, but I refered to this post in my blog today. Sorry mate, I meant to ask first but got carried away and posted!

DavidNic said...

Never a problem. Anything I post is free for you to reference at anytime.

Bent El Neel said...

Thanks a million David, right back at ya :)