In Rome for Jubilee, Bishop Dell’Oro encourages young people to ‘be brave, courageous’

At far right, Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, watches as James Cardinal Harvey, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, welcomes pilgrims during the U.S. national Jubilee pilgrim gathering in Rome July 30. The event, part of the Jubilee of Youth, included the veneration of the relics of 12 saints and blesseds. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

ROME (CNS) — Young people have such a great desire to make the world a better place that Church leaders should help give them the space to discern what God wants for them, a group of bishops said during the Jubilee of Youth.

Galveston-Houston Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, of the Archdiocese, who was in Rome attending the Jubilee of Youth with a delegation of young adults from Galveston-Houston, said he tries to attend as many youth and young adult activities as he can, especially World Youth Days and this Holy Year’s Jubilee dedicated to young people July 28 to Aug. 3.

Bishop Dell’Oro was one of eight archbishops and bishops who attended the U.S.A. National Jubilee Pilgrim Gathering at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, a special gathering at the basilica organized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops with the support of the Knights of Columbus. 

More than 4,000 people from the U.S. attended the July 30 event as part of their pilgrimage to Rome for the Holy Year, including more than 300 from Galveston-Houston parishes and ministries who are attending the Jubilee in Rome.

Bishop Dell’Oro also presided over a July 31 Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter for the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, joined by Father Zachary Muldrow, formerly parochial vicar at St. Martha in Kingwood, and Father Tucker Redding, SJ, chaplain at Rice University Catholic Student Center and St. Mary’s Chapel in Houston and a dozen other concelebrating priests from around the world. 

They also concelebrated the Opening Mass for the Jubilee for Youth and Young People at St. Peter’s Square on July 29, which was presided by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect for the new evangelization branch of the Dicastery for Evangelization.

“The Church should offer space for them so that they can confront one another in a way that makes them look forward,” and broadens their mind beyond their current situation to see how they can play a role in changing things for the better, Bishop Dell’Oro said.

They have a responsibility “to become good disciples on their own,” he said, so he sees his role as “challenging them” to not only enjoy being young but to also “be brave, courageous and trustful that if they make one step forward, the foot will land on solid ground.”

Recalling his youth and the “struggle to find the answer” to whether he should get married or pursue the priesthood, Bishop Dell’Oro said, “I was fortunate to have had such good guidance in a fairly Catholic environment,” without the “distractions of the media that we have today.” 

 “It was, in a certain way, easier to focus on the fundamentals of life, of our faith,” he said. The Church, therefore, should give young people “the space to discern, which is absolutely very, very important.”

If “we engage them to live their life in the fullness as lay people, and then if they have vocations, they can discern, and that’s a very, very important space that needs to be provided,” he said.

Bishop Dell’Oro also greeted and met with Pope Leo XIV during a papal audience in St. Peter’s Square at the end of the Jubilee pilgrimage before returning to Houston on Aug. 6. 

– James Ramos contributed to this report from Houston.