1. The image of the young consecrated man/woman

1.1 - It is my feeling that the young consecrated person represents something original in the modern youth scene. Sociological research in this regard seems to be growing less adequate to describe the young man or woman called to the consecrated life and to explain the mystery of his/her response. These young people, for example, are described as cold and impassive, yet at this congress we have seen them afire with unrestrained enthusiasm when challenged with certain proposals. It is said that young people are afraid of radicalness, but this very word was one of the most used ones in the group responses. The fear young people have of the future is also stressed but it is precisely this fear which young people have pointed out and object to in the preceding generations.

1.2 - Certainly the young person of today is not the protester of the late 60’s and early 70’s and this has both good and bad implications. However, what is more important to understand is that we can no longer consider these young people as children of the Second Vatican Council, however much this may displease some people: "The Second Vatican Council does not mean much to young religious or, at least, much less than it does to us adults". We cannot then continue to take for granted certain ideas, attitudes, feelings or perspectives. In any case, the young person is sincere and openly admits that he/she does not understand certain types of language any more, that certain talks were too abstract; there were even those who, while everyone was shouting and singing "We have seen the Lord", waving their scarves in the air, there were those who courageously and sincerely admitted that they have not seen the Lord even though they would very much liked to.... In conclusion, he/she is not like a sheep as once were the members of certain groups, nor are they the neo-sheep as are some modern young people.

1.3 - Many differences among the young people themselves emerged at this congress, both at the level of content (for example, certain positions taken as a result of proposals made in the talks) and at the level of taste (some young people objected to some of the "performances" at the celebration with the Pope). However, here too it can be taken for granted; what seems new to me is that the difference today is determined by contrasting models of the consecrated life which do not coincide perfectly with geographical and cultural differences or at least are not necessarily identified with them. In conclusion, because of global communications, today and even more so in the future, it is the cultural models of consecrated life (including the theological, spiritual, sociological and pedagogical) which make the difference rather than geographical or residential factors.

1.4 - There are those who say that today thought is weak and when this is true a strange factor apparently occurs: the other faculties (heart and will) try to balance the unreliability of the mind’s contribution or the impoverished results of mental research. I have the impression that various possibilities emerged from the congress: weak thought and strong feelings (the emotional types, who are quick to catch on fire but just as quickly burn out), weak thought and a great will to act (the superactivist types, who in the long run prefer action to thought), weak thought and rather passive clinging to the dictates of some authority or anxiously searching for some firm points of reference (the fundamentalist types, longing for a return to the past).

Actually, there were those at the congress who would have liked the talks to be less theoretical, while others would have liked them less experiential; there were those who spoke critically about too much work, and those instead who called for a consecrated life which is much more actively involved in life. Even though the great majority allowed themselves to be involved in the dynamic of the congress, there were those who stayed on the fringes to object to some organizational detail or some theoretical point. There is a kind of imbalance at the intra-psychic-spiritual level which is perhaps related to the times in which we live, a time of discernment in which thought is not strong and doubts are many. The young people cannot but be affected by this.