On the occasion of the World Youth Day (WYD), workshop , a controversy has arisen between two positions that, a little dissected, could be seen as alternatives. But this is not the case, if one looks at things more closely.

For some, the World Youth workshop should have as goal the meeting and coexistence among young people, the welcoming of cultural and religious diversity, the promotion of solidarity and interculturality (all this could be summarized in dialogue) but not conversion (especially if one thinks of a conversion imposed in an aggressive way).

For others, WYD should have as its main purpose conversion to Christ or evangelization (the advertisement of the Gospel); for the will of God cannot of itself will the diversity of religions. Moreover, the beliefs of each one are not indifferent or irrelevant. Therefore, focusing on welcoming diversity and dialogue could lead to an epistemological indifferentism, which would make any attempt at conversion an arrogant aggression.

In this way, dialogue would be opposed to conversion or evangelization.

However, St. Paul VI explains that evangelization is a dynamic reality, a process composed of various elements: "renewal of humanity [of criteria, values and interests, based on respect for conscience and convictions], witness, explicit advertisement , adhesion of the heart [conversion], entrance in the community, acceptance of signs, apostolic initiatives" (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 24). These elements, he adds, may seem to oppose or exclude one another; but in reality they are complementary and mutually enriching; and for this reason each of them must always be seen as integrated with the others.

This means (and here we wanted to arrive) that conversion is an element of a broader process, which is evangelization; and that it encompasses respect and dialogue as well as Christian witness and advertisement of Christ, passing through conversion staff to the living out of what is Christian in the Church, which leads back, closing the cycle to dialogue and Christian witness.

In other words: meeting, dialogue and welcome on the one hand and, on the other, advertisement of Christ and the call to conversion are not realities that can be opposed; rather, they are complementary: they are mutually demanding and cannot replace one another.

If we turn to the Gospel, we see how Jesus unites in his teaching the meeting and the dialogue with people together with the call to conversion and the advertisement of the Kingdom. Moreover, already by the very mystery of the Incarnation that constitutes him, Jesus Christ unites in himself the dialogue of salvation that God wants to offer to the world (since he is the Word made man) and the Gospel (the advertisement of salvation and the call to conversion) in staff fullness. The existence of Jesus Christ and his redemptive submission is the form that God's dialogue with mankind acquires when the fullness of revelation arrives. Hence we Christians should aspire to unite both aspects, starting from our life in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Is mission statement the same as evangelization? As the word itself suggests, evangelization (understood not only as the first advertisement of the Gospel but as everything that the Church does in its mission statement and Christians do to spread the message of the Gospel from our lives) is the action of putting in internship, "in act", the mission statement that the Lord has entrusted to us: to evangelize, to announce the Good News of salvation.

Every Christian is sent to make, with his life and words, a witness and a advertisement of the faith. Above all, wherever he is, counting on the abundant financial aid of God and in the framework of the ecclesial family. In addition, he can receive gifts(charisms) to collaborate with others in various tasks or services, within the great evangelizing mission statement .

Young people are called to meet, to dialogue about the challenges of today's world. And this dialogue and these challenges are also those that the Church's mission statement has before it. On the part of Christians, dialogue (for the sake of salvation) is one of the keys to the pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes of the Second Vatican Council. The programmatic encyclical of Paul VI, Ecclesiam suam, published when the work of the Council was in progress, dedicates its third part to the dialogue of salvation. It specifies some of the characteristics of this dialogue: clarity, affability, trust and pedagogical prudence (cf. n. 35), without renouncing Christian identity.

Young Christians participate, with their peers, in the betterment of society and in the transformation of the world for the good of all. In their encounters and dialogues with other young people, they have a proposal, faith, which brings light and life to the world and to people.

We Christians do not leave "aside" this proposal (which includes the advertisement of Christ and the call to conversion) in our meeting and dialogue with everyone. And vice versa: neither do we forget, at the moment of proposing the Gospel message, the dialogue on the great questions and challenges of our time. Hence we take care in our encounters, friendships and work with those around us.

How should this binomial dialogue-call to conversion be configured in the internship ? This depends in each case on adequate spiritual, ecclesial and evangelizing discernment. In this discernment, the main protagonist is the Holy Spirit (hence the importance of the spiritual life, based on prayer and the sacraments), who financial aid helps us to overcome conflicts by overcoming sterile polarizations.