ROME – In an open letter to the cardinals who will gather in the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday to elect the next pope, young people from around the world said they want a pope who is in touch with the needs of the world and allows them a voice in shaping the Church’s future.

“We stand at a crossroads. The death of Pope Francis does not mark the end of an era but serves as an invitation. An invitation to continue to hope. To move forward on the path he paved,” youth said in the letter, which is an initiative of the Belgian Catholic Church’s youth organization Kamino.

The letter has also drawn the support of famed Spanish “TikTok nun” Sister Xiskya Valladares, who participated in the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, and famed Portuguese DJ priest Father Guilherme Peixoto, who performed during World Youth Day in Lisbon in 2023.

Written by the director of Kamino, Sofi Van Ussel, based on the input of hundreds of young people from around the world, the letter, according to a press release, was specifically penned in a tone aimed at resonating with the cardinals, and is “not looking to provoke but rather to engage constructively.”

In the letter, youth recall the contribution of popes, priests, religious, laypeople and especially women, and martyrs of the past, saying, “They passed on the faith with passion, sometimes through suffering, often through love.”

“But we also acknowledge the shadows: clericalism, abuse of power, and complicit silence,” they said, saying, “to honor the past is also to learn from it – not to remain stuck in it, but to heal.”

Pope Francis, they said, “showed us a new way of being Church. He reminded us that synodality is not an event but a way of life,” and he taught the Church to listen to those on the margins.

“He opened doors, broke taboos, spoke about abuse, power structures, and nature as our sister, went to places where other world leaders dared not go…He built a culture of dialogue – with society, with other religions, with those who think and feel differently,” they said.

They stressed that the future of the Church “cannot be written” without the voice of young people, women, and lay people generally, saying they envision a “ministry of peacemakers” within the Church, with leaders who “build bridges, overcome conflict, and recognize the strength of vulnerability.”

“Let the conclave not be a closed space. Let it become a wellspring of spiritual renewal,” they said, and questioned why the People of God were not allowed to have a voice in pre-conclave meetings, suggesting that video messages from youth, victims of abuse, and the poor could have been played.

Youth voiced their hope for “a radically integral Church…where transparency is not a marketing term but the foundation of trust,” and said they want a church that is inclusive and does not judge, and which is in dialogue with all peoples and faiths.

The church must also maintain and increase its digital presence, “Not as a technological necessity, but as a missionary space. Where young people today live, search, ask questions, and share their faith,” they said.

“Pope Francis spoke of the digital peripheries – we believe they too can become a new Emmaus,” they said, and urged cardinals to be thoughtful in their decision.

“Do not merely elect a pope. Choose a pilgrim. A shepherd. A peacemaker. Let your choice be a step towards a Church where young people are not just welcomed but empowered as co-owners. Let your choice echo the spirit of Francis and offer a prophetic answer to the future,” they said.

The expected 133 cardinal-electors, those under 80, who will vote on their choice for the next Successor of Peter will enter into the Sistine Chapel Wednesday, May 7, after a Mass earlier that morning in which they will swear and oath of secrecy about the details surrounding the papal election and pledging to reject external attempts to sway the vote.

For nearly two weeks, since Pope Francis died Monday, April 21, both elector and non-elector cardinals have been gathering in pre-conclave general congregation meetings to discuss the state of the world and the Church, to identify the greatest needs and challenges, and to outline a profile of what they think is needed in the next pontiff.

Most cardinals have refrained from making public comments, with those who have focusing on prayer and offering few details.

Cardinal William Goh, 67, from Singapore told Italian media on Pope Francis that, “We recognize his achievements, but no pope is perfect, no one is capable of doing everything, so we’ll find the best person to succeed St. Peter.”

Likewise, French Dominican Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, 63, named archbishop of Alger in 2021, said “The Lord has already chosen” the next pope, and that as cardinals, “we need a little time, to pray together, but I am sure that at the right time we will know, and we will give the Church the pope that the Lord, that God himself, wanted.”

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, 82, archbishop emeritus of Genova and president emeritus of both the Italian Bishops’ Conference and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences told Italian newspaper La Stampa that Pope Francis “reminded us that faith is not an abstract ideal, but a relationship with the living Christ.”

“In a world marked by fears, divisions, conflicts, he insisted on an essential point: Jesus is our hope,” he said, saying this message got across in times of pandemic, war, poverty, loneliness.

Pope Francis, he said, “knew how to speak to the heart of the people and bring them back to the essential: God is close, he does not abandon us.”

In terms of what role this emphasis on pastoral closeness might hold for the future of the Church and the next pope, Bagnasco said this was one of Francis’s “greatest teachings.”

He recalled Pope Francis’s frequent insistence that the Church be a “field hospital” to attend to the wounded and for pastors to take on “the smell of the sheep” and not to live distant from the people, but immersed in the real lives of the people.

“This has always been the heart of the evangelic mission: to be in history without assimilating with it, bearing witness to the truth of the Gospel with love and closeness. Pope Francis knew how to enhance this closeness and recalled that it is the way to announce the Gospel in our time,” he said.

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