In this insightful interview, EWTN’s Vice President and Chief Global Officer, Andreas Thonhauser, speaks with Luis Quinelli, President of the Vitae Global Foundation, about the Vitae Festival — a groundbreaking event aimed at engaging Generation Z, particularly non-believers, through art, culture, and dialogue. Quinella shares the inspiration behind this global initiative, its mission of reconciliation in a divided world, and how it seeks to bring young hearts closer to faith in Jesus Christ.
Luis, you’re organizing the Vitae Festival here in Rome. Can you tell us a little bit more what exactly the Vitae Festival is all about?
Yeah, well, it’s a festival for youth, for Gen. Z, you know, the kids below 30 years old. It is the only festival that is focused on non-believers. Interesting thing: it’s a festival that happened in Mexico before this year, on May the 3rd. We are now having the festival on October 25th, and we are going around the world with this proposal.
Why does the world need a festival like this?
Well, in this very polarized world, fragmented world, our proposal, or message of reconciliation is related to that. You know, the kids are very spiritual, a curious generation, but they are facing mental health challenges. We are in a very special moment of the world with several conflicts. We understand that at the end there is a spiritual crisis and that crisis needs to be solved by the minister of reconciliation, that is Jesus Christ.
Who gave you the idea for this festival?
Well, we started this a long time ago in 2012 with a group of believers that we thought: “we need to do something in terms of putting the message of Jesus in a language that the non-believers can understand.” So, it is something that comes from God, obviously, but that’s our vision.
Thank you so much for doing this and we hope that really all those kids who don’t know the church yet will maybe find a way to the church and to the faith through this festival. Thank you for doing this.
Thanks. It is our prayer. Thank you very much.
Adapted by Jacob Stein. Produced by Alexey Gotovskiy; Camera by Anthony Johnson
