Walking together towards Lisbon:

a project imagined by the Christian Movement of Retired Persons (MCR) and encouraged by the Conference of Bishops of France.

The MCR proposes to "live an intergenerational, spiritual and fraternal communion between young and old through the 37th World Youth Day in Lisbon" which will take place from August 1 to 6 on the theme "Mary arose and went in haste".

Young French people will get up and leave with eagerness for seventeen Portuguese dioceses, before reaching Lisbon; on the French roads, the former members of the MCR will meet them: for example, in Le Puy the members of the MCR will welcome the young people when the buses arrive and will walk together towards the Saint Joseph sanctuary.

Each diocesan leader of the MCR is invited to get in touch with the WYD committee existing in each diocese to implement, during the passage of young people in the diocese, actions drawing on local strengths and resources. These actions, in addition to financial support, can be developed around three simple ideas:

- pray for each other and for the extraordinary celebration of WYD.

- create links between young and old.

- live in communion during WYD during the trip and stay, using current communication tools to transmit messages or videos.

In Alsace, a meeting between young people leaving for WYD and members of the MCR will be organized in June before leaving for WYD; it will be a time of conviviality but also a time of reflection to better understand and enrich each other: the young people will say why they go to WYD, how they live their faith, the elders will say how faith has underpinned their lives and gave it meaning.

Creating links between generations, writes the director of the MCR magazine, can give more meaning and flavour to the action while responding to this "necessary alliance between young and old" that the Holy Father has been calling for since a long time.

Monique Bodhuin

According to the article published by Gwenaël Demont, in the issue of the review Nouvel Essor of the MCR, n°290 dated March 2023