Juventutem

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Juventutem is an international Roman Catholic movement of young people attached to the Tridentine Mass. It was established in April 2004 with the intention of having a delegation present at the international World Youth Day in 2005 and in subsequent years. Juventutem also aims to foster and strengthen relationships between these young people at the national and international levels, and to encourage and assist them in developing their faith.

The word juventutem is Latin for "youth" and is taken from the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, the opening prayers of the Traditional Mass: Introibo ad altare Dei. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam. ("I will go in to the Altar of God. To God, the joy of my youth.") In the Catholic understanding, the term juventutem refers to the spiritual youth that comes from the grace of Christ. The celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is central to the Catholic Faith. The Traditional Latin Mass in all its essentials was passed on by St. Peter, the first pope, to the Church. The Apostles themselves, according to St. Ambrose, worked at its elaboration. It reached its complete perfection with Popes St. Damasus (fourth century) and St. Gregory the Great (sixth century). This Catholic and Apostolic Mass was canonized "in perpetuity" by Pope St Pius V after the Council of Trent. The current typical edition of the Roman Missal is the Mass of Paul VI, introduced in 1969.

The first Juventutem meeting was in 2005 in Cologne, Germany, and was the first official delegation to any World Youth Day. More than 1000 young people from more than 20 countries attended Juventutem Cologne. Two cardinals and eight bishops participated in parts or all of the two week meeting, as well as many priests, religious and seminarians from around the world.

Juventutem has grown significantly since Cologne. The Juventutem International Federation (F.I.J.) was founded on the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, 24 May 2006. Fifteen nation-based groups, including ones in the UK, Ireland, Australia, France, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Lithuania, Scotland, England, The Netherlands, Kenya, Hong Kong and Hungary have also been established.

The Juventutem International Federation focuses on the daily sanctification of youth according to the Roman traditions of the Catholic Church. Attending World Youth Days is one among the possible means provided in order to reach that goal. As a consequence, those who are unable to attend World Youths Days (for various reasons) are by no means prevented from joining or starting a local group within the International Juventutem Federation - one such group is Young Catholic Adults (YCA), which was established in 2004 in the UK.

[edit] Support

On 17 January 2008, Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos sent Juventutem the following letter of support:

Dear young members of the International Juventutem Federation,

You are young Catholics, loyal to the hierarchy of the Church and attracted by the "forma extraordinaria" of the Roman liturgy, in particular by the Missal of the Blessed John XXIII. I encourage you in your aim, that is to say your sanctification through the Roman traditions of the Church.

The presence of your little groups in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas and Oceania demonstrates the universal attraction of the most ancient forms of the Roman liturgy, whose particular transcendence serves to connect the most diverse cultures. From this liturgy, you will receive special help in coming better to know and love Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Church, as the Holy Father wrote on 7th July 2007: "Immediately after the Second Vatican Council, it might have been imagined that the demand for the use of the 1962 Missal would have been limited to the older generation, which had grown up with it, but it has since become clear that young people were also discovering this liturgical form, feeling attracted to it and finding in it a type of contact with the Most Holy Eucharist which suited them particularly well" (Letter to the Bishops, accompanying the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum").

As a sign of your devotion to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, your Juventutem Federation has chosen as its emblem a monstrance. I also know that you will be present at the International Eucharistic Congress in Québec in June 2008.

I therefore wish to renew my encouragement of your progress in Christian piety and friendship via the Roman traditions of the Church. May you continue to obtain ever deeper sanctification, which will make you warm witnesses of the love of Christ in communion with His Church.

Dario Card. Castrillon Hoyos,
President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei