Among the many voices that filled Rome during World Youth Day 2025, there was also that of the Romanian Guanellian Sisters, who accompanied a group of young people on this pilgrimage of faith and fraternity, experienced in the heart of the Jubilee Year.
From their community based in Chișinău, Moldova, they set out with thirteen young people to live an experience that exceeded expectations, marked by encounters, prayer, walking, and discovery. A simple yet significant presence, which brought the Guanellian charism through the streets of Rome and into the hearts of the young participants.

In this interview, Sr. Melania Farcaș, responsible for the formation of the junior sisters, tells what they experienced: an authentic look at the energy and questions of today’s youth, and at the beauty of being a Church on the move.

Sr. Melania, what did it mean for you religious sisters to accompany a group of young people to WYD 2025? What surprised you the most about how the young people lived this experience?

For us, it was a great joy. Despite the Catholic minority in Moldova, we managed to take part in such an extraordinary event as the Jubilee, together with thousands of young people from all over the world.

What struck me most in them was their joyful faith and simple trust. They lived everything with enthusiasm, with an authentic desire to participate, grow, and share. With their gratitude and their joy, they naturally testified to the beauty of life with Jesus, even touching those they met. This attitude was, for me, the strength that sustained me even in the fatigue of the journey.

Was there a moment, an encounter, or a gesture during WYD that left a special mark on your heart or the hearts of the young people?

There were many, but two in particular left a deep impression.

The first was the Sacrament of Reconciliation at the Circus Maximus: we couldn’t find priests who spoke Romanian or Russian, but the young people did not give up. Their tenacity was rewarded by meeting available confessors, who made possible a living experience of God’s mercy.

The second was the encounter with the Guanellian community of “Casa S. Rosa” in Rome. Welcomed with simplicity, the young people breathed an atmosphere of prayer, shared life, and peace. From that meeting was born in them the desire for a more authentic faith, lived consistently in the ordinary places of life. They discovered that consecrated life is a presence that inspires: a witness of concrete love capable of speaking even to those who are searching.

What fruits or future paths do you hope may be born from this experience, for the young people and for your community?

The first fruit is the desire to continue walking together. The young people expressed their wish to meet again as a group, to keep the communion alive, and to witness to the faith in daily life: at school, at work, in the family.

In the group there were also three Orthodox boys who only recently became part of the Catholic Church. For them, WYD was an immense gift: they expressed gratitude and the desire to participate more actively in parish life, catechesis, and charity. A concrete desire to live their faith fully.

A particularly significant moment was the Vigil with Pope Leo XIV. His words — “Love one another... Friendship is a path to peace” — resounded strongly. In the young people, a new impulse was born: to build simple and authentic relationships capable of generating peace, starting from their own surroundings. Some shared the dream of weaving bonds even with neighboring countries, Russia and Ukraine, through small gestures of fraternity and listening.

For us religious sisters, too, it was an experience of renewal.

The young people reminded us that faith is a path always open, and that accompanying means standing together in the questions, without the rush to give answers. And perhaps hope is born right there: when someone stays with you while you seek the light.