World Youth Day

With the passing of Holy Week and Lent, the minds of seminarians are already beginning to turn toward summer and whatever adventure that might bring. For the seminarians of my diocese, July will bring a pilgrimage to Sydney, Australia, where we will join both the Holy Father and youth from around the world for prayer, catechesis, and Mass. The following is an excerpt from some of the promotional material I wrote as my diocese began recruiting pilgrims for the journey.

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"World Youth Day is the Catholic Church's week of events for youth and with youth. It gathers thousands of young people from around the world to celebrate and learn about the Catholic faith and to build bridges of friendship and hope between continents, peoples and cultures. "

The above is the answer that the official WYD 08 website gives to the question, "What is World Youth Day?" However, in reality, it is something much more profound than three or four sentences can really capture. It is a recognition that God is indeed God of all the earth. One prays and realizes that one is praying to the same God as always, even thousands of miles away from normal life. World Youth Day is the recognition of the truly universal nature of our Church. We worship with Africans, Asians, Europeans, South Americans, as well as other North Americans. World Youth Day is fun - we travel with great priests and great people from our own diocese. We see the world. World Youth Day is intense. The Pope has high hopes for us, and he tells us so. There is no getting off easily with him. He expects us to accomplish great things with God. It's hard to explain what World Youth Day really is. I can talk and talk and tell stories and describe what we do each day, but it requires your participation if you really want to know what it is.

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Gregory would chide me for that last sentence. He tells me that one needn't experience something in order to know it. He is right. Nevertheless, it is hard to try to describe World Youth Day. I found myself thinking about it for months after the fact, following the last two that I attended. It has a powerful effect on the participants and on the nations where it occurs. I am looking forward to being a part of this event once again.