India’s youth leaders pledge to work for peace

(January 18, 2011) Catholic youth leaders from all over India ended a three-day festival on Sunday, (Jan. 16) pledging to work for harmony and peace in the country. The Sisters of the Cross brought some 125 young people to Amravati, Maharashtra, to experience the nation’s unity in diversity in the International Year of the Youth. Sister Sangeeta Pereira, who coordinates the congregation’s youth activities in its Amravati province, described the program as a small investment to help youth decide for theirs as well as the nation’s future. “We have a collective responsibility to ensure that the modern youths get enough exposure and proper understanding about different cultures, languages, and ethnicities and religions existing in the country,” the nun told ucanews.
The program included a debate on “Youth can build and youth can break” where young people blamed parents for some Catholic children going astray. “The parents provide their children all sorts of material benefits but fail to help them imbibe the Catholic values to lead a worthy life,” said Terence John, a participant. Most often, the youths are pushed into corruption and terrorism, and such negative attitudes could be checked if Catholic values are introduced to them at childhood, he added.
Sister Pereira’s provincial, Sister Elizabeth Miranda, appealed to the youth to use their energy to gain knowledge and join public life to build a strong nation.