ROME – LGBTQ issues, gender, migration, corruption, disabilities and drug trafficking will be some of the topics discussed at the Synod of Bishops scheduled for October, officials confirmed.

 This was decided after a document entitled “Instrumentum laboris” was released on Tuesday and revealed that: “Young people feel a lack of harmony with the Church. […] It seems that we don’t understand the vocabulary, and therefore also the needs of the young.”

 This conclusion was drawn from an online questionnaire answered by over 100,000 young people across the globe, as well as from a group of 300 youngsters summoned to the Vatican by Pope Francis earlier this week to discuss their demands.

 The document, which was released at a press conference in Rome led by Italian Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, will serve as the basis for discussion at the Bishops’ synod scheduled for October.

 The event, entitled “Young people, the faith and vocational discernment”, will attract hundreds of churchmen from all around the globe, who will assess the various issues brought up in the text and discuss the impact they have on young people today.

 The document reveals that many young people “face inequality and discrimination because of their gender, social class, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, geographical position, disability or ethnicity.”

 “Some LGBT young people, through their contributions to the Secretary of the Synod, wish to ‘benefit from a greater closeness’ and experience greater care from the Church,” the Instrumentum also reads.

 These issues, acknowledged to be a “source of debate among the youth, both inside the Church and in society,” will be addressed at the synod, along with plenty of others.

 The summit will ultimately focus on the younger generation’s relation with the Church, their vocation and their faith.

 What the document expresses fundamental concern about is that youngsters from across the globe are leaving the Church “in great numbers”, partly because of its “indifference and lack of listening” and because “many times the Church seems to be too severe and often associated to an excessive moralism.”

 They are therefore hoping to successfully address an array of controversial topics at the gathering, to secure the future of the church and its relevance amongst the young.

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