Pope Francis
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby
The Secretary General of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Jerry Pillay
The Secretary General of the World Lutheran Federation, Rev. Anne Burghardt
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen
The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar

Pope Francis

Dear young people, on the occasion of the 46th European meeting organized in Ljubljana by the Taizé Community on the theme "Journeying together," His Holiness Pope Francis sends you his greetings. He also expresses his closeness to all of you who are involved at different levels in the life of the Church and of your different nations.

The recent World Youth Days gave you the opportunity to live, as a Church, as a community, the beautiful experience of friendship with God and with others. Indeed, you are God’s today, the Church’s today! The Church needs you to be fully herself. As Church, you are the Body of the Risen Lord present in the world. Dear friends, we live in a world full of noise, where the values of silence and listening are stifled. In this context, I invite you to rediscover the profound dimension of listening. Listening is an act of love. It lies at the heart of trust. Without listening, little can grow or develop. Listening gives the other person the space to exist. We often have the impression that the one who shouts loudest is worth listening to. Unfortunately, today violence is gaining more and more ground. We are living in difficult times, with conflicts and wars scattered across the world, because nobody listens anymore. I urge you to dare to build a different world, a world of listening, dialogue and openness, to "to point to ideals other than those of this world, testifying to the beauty of generosity, service, purity, perseverance, forgiveness, fidelity to our personal vocation, prayer, the pursuit of justice and the common good, love for the poor, and social friendship." (Christus vivit, n. 36).

One of the challenges you face is to walk together, to work towards the qualitative transformation of life in our societies. Walking together means blocking the road to marginalization, closure, exclusion and the rejection of one category of people. You become builders of bridges between peoples, cultures and religions, for a stable and open world. We must commit ourselves to living like our Master and Lord Jesus, who excluded no one from his path. Rooted in communion with God, Christ shared his life with those who came to him. He recognized God’s presence in women and men on the margins of society, even those who did not belong to his people.

Faced with today’s challenges and our own frailty, some people sometimes feel “homeless.” When we face these challenges together, there can be experiences of beauty, of transcendence, that help us to discover the spark that makes us begin again with new vitality.

Dear young people, the Holy Father is counting on you and trusts you, and the Church trusts you. With your words and actions, give a powerful message to our world, which rejects the vulnerable. Make your dreams of love, justice and peace a concrete reality, starting with yourselves. Live in the present. Don’t sacrifice your precious youth on the altar of superficial pleasures. Don’t let your dreams be stolen, and contribute to "building a society worthy of the name" (Fratelli tutti, n. 71). Entrusting each of you and your families to the Lord, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Pope Francis grants you his Apostolic Blessing with all his heart. I ask you to pray for him.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State to His Holiness

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

Dear young people,

We send our warmest and most fatherly greetings to all of you who are meeting in that beautiful city of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, where the 46th young adult European meeting of Taizé is currently being held around a theme that is particularly important today, "Journeying together."

It is with great joy that we send you this message of peace and hope as you share a unique moment in your lives, a time of prayer, reflection and ecumenical fellowship. For over forty years, the spiritual tradition of the Taizé Community, following in the footsteps of its founder Brother Roger, has created a unique space where young people of different Christian denominations from all over Europe can walk together on this pilgrimage of unity and reconciliation. At the heart of this meeting, you will discover the richness of our differences and the strength of our unity in faith. Inspired by the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, you are invited to journey together. Let us recall his words in the Gospel according to Saint John the Theologian: "I give you a new commandment: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another". (John 13:34) May this love guide your collective journey, forging deep bonds of friendship and mutual understanding. In this pivotal period, at the crossroads of two years, when peace in Europe and the world requires our total commitment, we are called to work together towards a future of justice, reconciliation and solidarity. May your discussions and deliberations address the challenges of our time, encouraging everyone to contribute to building a better, fairer world. As St. Basil the Great said, "Without peace with all peoples, insofar as it is according to my possibilities, I cannot call myself a worthy servant of Jesus Christ." And he added, "Nothing is more characteristic of a Christian than to be a peacemaker". We hope that these days will be marked by the creation of new friendships, the growth of a deeper understanding of your neighbor, and the discovery of the diversity of the Christian faith in this rich European context. May this experience be for you a significant step on your common journey of faith, transformation and conversation in Christ.

Together, make this meeting an exceptional moment of hope and fraternity. May your exchanges and prayers guide you towards a future where Christian youth, united in its diversity, can play a significant role in building a better world, an exemplary Europe driven by an ecumenical ethos of solidarity. May God bless this new Taizé young adult European meeting, and may you be filled with peace, love and grace during these memorable days in Ljubljana. We pray for you and we bless you. May the grace of unity shine forth in each and every one of you, and may it be the bearer of the hope that sustains the life of the Church, so that you may be worthy workers for peace.

Phanar, December 20, 2023

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby

Dear Brother Matthew,

I want to congratulate you, once again, on becoming Prior of Taizé (…). The prayer vigil in Rome was a truly momentous and memorable occasion. Can there have ever been such a powerful ecumenical symbol of prayer in St Peter’s Square before? I was very moved to be present.

And of course I am delighted to send my greetings to your 46th European Meeting of young adults. What an extraordinary blessing the Taizé community has been to the churches over many years! Your themes of listening, journeying, being with others, remaining with God and with others, are absolutely central to what the Christian churches have to offer our distressed and suffering world. Young people are the hope of the world, and my prayers for an inspiring, uplifting Meeting go with you, and I pray for God’s blessing on you.

The Secretary General of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Jerry Pillay

“I have come that they may have life, and life abundant.”—John 10:10

I am so happy to send our prayers and greetings to you, as you gather for this year’s Taizé youth encounter, and to encourage your ongoing ecumenical journey.

You meet at a time of particular pain for Europe—and indeed the world. All the more reason, then, to come together in faith. The world needs you, your youth and vision, your truth-telling and readiness to embrace life and serve humanity.

In these days of challenge, when so many find brokenness, pain, and despair, someone must stand up for hope. Let it be you! God desires it, Christ inspires it, and the Spirit enables it.

We at the World Council of Churches join your pilgrimage to our own. We will walk together. We will pray together. We will work together for justice, peace, and reconciliation.
So this is our prayer for you: May Ljubljana be for each of you the next step in your sacred journey of faith. May you find there the joys of community, the assurance of God’s loving presence, and the courage to continue seeking authenticity in your own lives and justice for all humanity. The God of Life leads us on. Let us embrace life, with all its perils and possibilities and, brought together in Christ, live in love for the world and its future.

Yours in Christ

The Secretary General of the World Lutheran Federation, Rev. Anne Burghardt

Dear Brother Matthew and all brothers of the Taizé Community,
Dear pilgrims, now gathered in Ljubljana for the European meeting.

Greetings from the Lutheran World Federation. Greetings in these days of Christmas, of one hope born in the world. Today as pilgrims who take the risk of actively listening, you open a space for The Holy Spirit to act, bringing us together in unexpected ways to live in communion, to live together in unity, in reconciled diversity.

Listening is a gospel adventure. Listening opens a way forward in the midst of violence and war, that opposes human beings and communities one against the other. Listening is an expression of faith that liberates us, that frees us from the grips of the culture of success and prosperity, which imprisons so many today. Your witness, as you gather and pray, as you listen in silence, is greatly needed in our world today.

The Lutheran World Federation and its many member churches, join you in that prayer for peace, for reconciliation, for justice and for hope.

The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres

It is a pleasure to send a message to all of you at the 46th European Meeting of young adults.

We are in an era of mounting tensions and anguish. Wars are raging. Poverty and hunger are growing. Our climate is becoming more dangerous and more extreme.

The Taizé Community’s values of solidarity and compassion are remedies for a world in turmoil. As your message inspires us, we must find pathways to journey together across divides for shared solutions, united by our common humanity.

Around the world, young people are leading the way – raising their voices for change, creating solutions, and forging a path to a better future. The United Nations stands with you and all people striving to create a fairer, more compassionate world.

I wish you the very best for your meeting. Thank you for your commitment to advancing peace, sustainable development and human rights around the globe.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen

Dear Brother Matthew,
Dear friends of Taizé,

It was the Christmas of 2019 when Brother Alois wrote to me, asking me for the first time to address Taizé’s European Meeting of Young Adults in Poland. His letter struck a chord with me. Its title was “Always on the move, never uprooted” – a quote from Saint Urszula Ledochowska. It made me think of my children and of many other young Europeans, anchored in age-old values but always ready for innovation and change. Since then, your annual European meeting of young adults has become for me a moment to pause and reflect – about Europe, unity, and the joy of feeling so deeply connected with people from different places and diverse backgrounds. In Summer 2022, I finally experienced that joy in person, by meeting many of you in Taizé.

Your songs and your silence, your prayers and your dialogues: everything in Taizé speaks about unity in diversity. This is also the spirit of your meeting in Ljubljana. And I am particularly grateful to Brother Matthew for inviting me to reflect with you on the idea of “journeying together”. The world around us is fracturing and polarising. War has returned to Europe and to the Middle East. Faith is used to tear people apart, instead of bringing them together. Extreme forces are trying to sow division within our societies, instead of fostering cooperation towards the common good. All of this is dangerous, but none of this is inevitable. The story of Taizé – and of Europe – teaches that diversity does not have to lead to division, and reconciliation is always possible.

Think about what happened at the recent UN Climate Conference in Dubai. The gap between North and South, East and West of the world seemed too wide. We Europeans worked hard to build bridges. And in the end, the world managed to agree – for the first time ever – on the need to transition away from fossil fuels. It can be the start of a new era, where humanity and the rest of creation are finally reconciled.

In the same spirit, we will also continue to work for dialogue and reconciliation within our societies. Hamas’ terror has sparked new tensions between communities also here in Europe. Antisemitism, racism and antimuslim hatred are again on the rise. But resignation is not the answer. We must redouble our efforts to bring people from different backgrounds together. This is why we want to create a pan-European space for dialogue and reconciliation. It will be organised as a series of citizens’ dialogues, and it will be an opportunity to know each other and get out of our social bubbles. An opportunity to counter prejudice and replace it with understanding. I count on your engagement and your energy to help bring this new initiative to life.

The spirit of our Union is the spirit of Taizé. We are deeply rooted in our values and beliefs. And this is what gives us the strength to be open to the other. I wish you all a rich and happy stay in Slovenia. And I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar

Dear brother Matthew,
Dear young people.

Your meeting in 2023 is taking place in a time of many tensions, divisions and armed conflicts, of which there are currently more than fifty across the world. The war in Ukraine is still raging near us, and the Israeli-Palestinian war in the Middle East has no end in sight. Many civilians are suffering, and in their despair they are leaving their hearths, homes, families, friends and relatives. Deprived of their dignity and basic human rights, they are leaving their towns and regions, where life is no longer worthy of a human being, on the contrary, it has become inhumane. I follow the news on a daily basis and I am saddened to see that the argument of power is prevailing over the power of argument. Although many, many people are calling for peace, it is not yet on the horizon. The calls are not heard by those who are causing the wars.

God means something unique to each individual, but I firmly believe that God’s first message is clear. Peace! Our common mission is to ensure the conditions in which it will be possible not only to live in peace, but to live in a safe environment that will allow progress and joy for all, especially for children, who are those who suffer the most in wars. They are robbed of a carefree childhood. Only peace will enable us not to dwell on the past, but to provide the conditions in which the real challenges of our times can be faced. Among these, technological advancements and climate change are far and away at the forefront. The former can also have detrimental consequences for individuals, communities and the world as a whole if they are not used for the good of humanity.

However, we will only manage to do this together on the basis of acceptance of diversity and with tolerance, in a culture of dialogue, in a spirit of acknowledgement of past mistakes and forgiveness, accepting and overcoming the sins of the past, and with our eyes and will fixed on the present and the future. We need to summon all the energy we have. All of us, every single one of us. We must create the conditions for peace, for the dignity of all, for the inclusion of the most marginalised and vulnerable, for the return of those who had to leave. War refugees, economic and climate migrants repeatedly say that they would prefer to stay at home, in their own countries, if only there were peace and basic conditions for a decent life there.

Dear young friends, I trust that you have the will and the strength to take a big step, even a decisive one, towards cooperation, mutual understanding, the elimination of divisions, and the acceptance of differences and diversity as integral parts of our societies and the understanding of an inclusive vision of the future.

My heartfelt wish for all is that 2024 will be a year of peace, that all would share kindness, solidarity and humanity with others. In this way each of us will leave a mark that will make the world a better place and somebody a happier person.

I wish that this year’s gathering in Ljubljana may stay in your memories forever and that the friendships made may remain in your hearts for a long time to come.