Saturday, August 21, 2022, at the Mary Queen of Carmel Spiritual Center in Gitega, the 2nd Youth Festival was held on the topic “Looking to the future. Empathy and the will to reconcile”. This theme concluded a year of community apostolate marked by three weekends of human and spiritual formation of young people. The title of the festival reflected the main attitudes deriving from this formation: to translate into a worldview and actions the condition of “a pure generation” after the atrocities and divisions that have sown death and resentment in Burundi’s tumultuous past; to bear witness to unity, with eyes fixed on the example of witnesses, in this case the unity of the 44 martyrs of the Buta seminary (30 April 1997); to be sensitive and cultivate non-violent communication.
The preparation of the various performances was been left to young people. In a rich and diverse way, they showed their talent by wonderfully embodying this topic in singing, dancing, theatre. with great creativity. In this initiative 4 dimensions converged: the artistic deployment, the spiritual impregnation, the relational capacity that penetrates through to following generations, the effectiveness of a work carried out in a team according to precise objectives.
