Vidal launches book on conversations with youth

CEBU, Philippines - “May the young find in our Lord the true destiny they’re seeing for their lives.”

This was said by Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal as he talked about his book entitled “You’re still young, I’m old: A conversation with the youth of Cebu”, launched at a benefit dinner last Saturday.

The title of the book, Vidal said, is actually a composite from a song most familiar to young people, Cat Steven’s “Father and Son”.

“The powerful lyric of the song is about the young man’s search for his destiny, and his father gently told him to just relax, take it easy from universal resonance,” Vidal said.

“The father tells ‘for you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not’. When old persons say something to the young, they do not merely speak as old persons, for how matter how old they may be, they retain their consciousness of being once young,” Vidal said.

“If fathers may sound discreet in their counsel to their children, that is because they do not always speak from wisdom, they could be pleading from the depths of regrets,” Vidal added.

While searching for their destiny, Vidal further called on the youth not to be totally swayed by their future generation.

Vidal talked about the controversies arising in the country that are being fed to the youth nowadays, including the Reproductive Health Bill and the dilemma concerning the freedom of expression.

He said this focuses the need to guide the young populace as they confront the world that is radically different from the world their parents know.

“This confident capacity to invent new things has given its generation a sense that it has nothing to learn from the previous one. Technology may increase your feat from the previous generation, but values remain the bedrock,” the Emeritus said.

“The true image of man is Jesus Christ, through God and through man. It is through him that we must learn. May the young find in our Lord the true destiny they’re seeing for their lives,” Vidal added as he thanked Palma and the crowd for attending the event.

Composed of homilies and messages, the book also encompasses conversations which covered a wide range of topics like spirituality, entertainment to environment, fraternities to responsible media consumption. — (FREEMAN)