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World Youth Day in Madrid: a commitment, rather than a party for 28 Sri Lankans
by Melani Manel Perera
Fr. Reid Shelton Fernando, archdiocesan chaplain of the Young Christian Workers (YCW) and the Christian Workers Movement (CWM): "Sharing spiritual experiences, to challenge the culture of this secularist".
Colombo (AsiaNews) - There will be 28 Sri Lankans who will go to Madrid, August 16 to 21, for World Youth Day. It will not only be a moment of celebration, for Fr. Reid Shelton Fernando, archdiocesan chaplain of the Young Christian Workers (YCW) and the Christian Workers Movement (CWM), but above all "a commitment to share their spiritual experience, to challenge the this secularist culture ".
"John Paul II established World Youth Day for young people to begin to treasure their faith – Fr Fernando told AsiaNews - and although they do not all speak the same language, it is an opportunity to experience the love of God through the language of love. "
The greatest hope for the priest, is that "our young people will find in the WYD experience fertile ground from which to draw inspiration for their future, so that they can transmit what they have learned to all the young people of Sri Lanka."
Finally, Fr. Fernando hopes that the celebrations of World Youth Day will "deal a blow to secularism and its politicians in Spain."