ATCHISON — Grant Eberle, a homeschooled high schooler from Atchison, participated in a panel of young people interviewing Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, at the 47th Rimini Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples in Rimini, Italy, on Aug. 26.
In front of 2,300 people, Eberle and two young people from Italy asked Cardinal Pizzaballa questions for one hour, generated from his recent pastoral letter: “They Returned to Jerusalem With Great Joy: A Proposal for Living the Vocation of the Church in the Holy Land.”
Cardinal Pizzaballa has served as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem since Nov. 6, 2020. He is known for his fluency in Modern Hebrew and deep engagement with Jewish and Muslim communities in the Middle East peace efforts.
Eberle developed his questions in collaboration with Atchison high school students, ranging from his personal experience of pain and hope to theological reflections on the portrayal in Scripture of heaven as the heavenly Jerusalem.
Eberle is one of nearly 30 Atchison high schoolers involved in Gioventù Studentesca (GS), an international high school student movement and the direct precursor to the Catholic movement Communion and Liberation (CL).
GS was founded by a group of Italian teenagers and Father Luigi Giussani, an Italian priest and educator, in 1954. It is now a worldwide lay association of the Catholic Church which includes groups for high schoolers, university students, adults and young workers.
Weekly CL catechetical meetings are held locally in Atchison, Lawrence and Mission and are open to the public. For more information, email Emad Mekhail at: emad.mekhail@gmail.com.
