The Nature and Dignity of Man

Members of World Youth Alliance present Pope John Paul II with a Declaration on the Human Person during World Youth Day
By Melinda Mounsey

In July of 2002, young people from around the world traveled to Toronto for World Youth Day. They took the city by storm, filling the streets and subways with laughter and chatter as they made their way on pilgrimages ending in a muddy field complete with field mice, frogs, and, most importantly, Pope John Paul II. "You are our hope," the Pope told close to one million youth at the final mass, as they stood on tiptoe, gripping their umbrellas, "the young are our hope."

Three days before the Pope spoke at the final mass, in a classroom at the University of Toronto, a smaller and drier group gathered. Sixty young men and women, representing fourteen countries on five continents and a variety of different faiths and cultures, were selected to participate in an International Roundtable on the Human Person sponsored by the World Youth Alliance. They came to try to find an answer to the fundamental question facing man: Who is the human person?

The young people were aided in their task by intellectuals, including George Weigel, a theologian and the author of Witness to Hope ; Fr. Robert Sirico, the President of the Acton Institute on the Study of Religion and Liberty; Fr. Roger Landry, an expert on John Paul II's Theology of the Body; and Dr. Pia de Solenni, a scholar in the new feminism. They led the sixty young participants in small discussion groups. The goal of the day was to finalize a declaration on the Human Person, a short statement on the nature and dignity of man.

Small but powerful groups of young people like this are a tradition in the World Youth Alliance (WYA). In 1999, the first such small team, led by president Anna Halpine, took the United Nations by storm at the Cairo+5 conference on Population and Development. Armed with day-glo flyers, the group of 10 WYA founders announced that the 32 members of the United Nations Youth Caucus did not speak for all young people when they proclaimed sexual autonomy and abortion rights as the most important needs of young people around the world. Negotiations stopped, pandemonium ensued, and delegates from the developing world approached WYA members to ask, "Where have you been?"

In the three and a half years since, the WYA has grown to over one million young people, with members in at least 100 countries around the world. Members come from different faiths, ethnicities, and cultures, but are united by their unwavering commitment to the intrinsic dignity of each human person.

The events of the World Youth Alliance at World Youth Day were a microcosm of the work being done by our membership year-round in every region of the world. Take some intellectual muscle, artistic talent, and a lot of hard work, and you get a World Youth Alliance event. Oh, yes, and there has to be dancing.

The many young people who visited the WYA "Culture of Life Café" during World Youth Day were able to hear live music from an acoustic band and see artwork created by young people from all around the world. On one evening nearly two hundred young pilgrims took a beginners lesson in swing dancing, and then danced late into the night. Seated at a table inside the café, a visitor might have heard the World Youth Alliance being introduced in any of twelve different languages.

Caroline Shisubili, the graceful 25-year-old director of the African region, travelled from Kenya to be with the other full-time members of the World Youth Alliance staff at World Youth Day. Caroline, a former slum-administrator for a clean water initiative in Nairobi, has seen first hand the true needs of young people around the world. She knows too well the impact on a family when a mother discovers she has AIDS. But she believes strongly that in Africa the roots of a culture of life have always been present and need only to be affirmed. She shakes her head in disappointment when she talks about the common solution offered to her continent by the international community - another shipment of condoms.

It was confrontation with extreme poverty in his native Mexico that led Jesus Rivera, the latest addition to the WYA staff and director of Latin America, to get involved at the international level. At the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development, he was able to speak directly with heads of state and delegates from around the world. They were delighted to see young people from the developing world taking part in the international decision-making process.

For Mark DeYoung, the director of the North American Youth Alliance, World Youth Day was an opportunity to meet many of the young people from Canada and the US. According to Mark, the youth of North America face unique challenges. Although they benefit from material wealth, quality education, relatively peaceful communities and numerous luxuries, many young people experience a very limited definition of who they are. Consumerism and a highly individualistic culture have left these youth grasping for identity and meaning. He views it as a part of the role of the World Youth Alliance to bring North American youth a greater vision of themselves.

A two-day forum hosted by the World Youth Alliance was one way to provide that greater vision. At the forum, Weigel, Sirico, Landry and de Solenni, the intellectuals at the roundtable, were joined by a variety of other speakers and artists, including US Ambassador Jim Nicholson, Irish Member of the European Parliament and singer Dana Rosemary Scallon, and Canadian fashion designer Justina McCaffrey. Thousands of young people were exposed to the idea of the dignity of the human person over the course of two forums.

At the end of the International Roundtable, the sixty young people present voted and agreed upon a declaration. This declaration defined the human person as being endowed with intrinsic and inviolable dignity, while declaring that the freedom of the human person is most fully and rightly lived in the gift of self. The Declaration was presented to Pope John Paul II before his departure from Toronto, and can be found at www.worldyouthalliance.org

If you would like to join the World Youth Alliance in building a culture of life, visit our website or email us at: wya@worldyouthalliance.org.?

Melinda Mounsey is the 25-year-old Director of Operations of the World Youth Alliance. She lives in New York City .