world youth day 2008

Diocese Gets Jump on World Youth Day Preparations

By Gretchen R. Crowe
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 2/22/07)

Youths worldwide will be going down under for World Youth Day in July 2008. From July 15-20 — just a little more than 500 days from now — thousands of young people will descend on Sydney, Australia, for what organizers call “a moving and sanctifying pilgrimage in faith.”
Kevin Bohli, director of the Office of Youth Ministry, said that more local youths already are interested than he had anticipated. Registration packets will be distributed to parish youth ministers at the end of this month. Participating pilgrims must be at least 16 years old at the time of departure, and there will be a ratio of one adult to seven youths — with no attendance cap.
“If 500 people want to go, we’ll make it happen,” Bohli said. But the wheels have to be put in motion early on.
Masses of teenagers and young adults from the Arlington Diocese will spend the next year and a half fund-raising, making logistical decisions and preparing their hearts through catechesis and prayer for their 60,000 kilometer trip across the globe. St. Leo the Great Parish in Fairfax and Sacred Heart Parish in Winchester have already hit the ground running.
Scott Vezina, youth minister at St. Leo, said that since he began publicizing the pilgrimage last fall he has had 28 youths commit, despite the high cost.
“Praise God that I have 28 youth,” Vezina said. “But that’s a lot of fund-raising.”
Total cost for the trip will be $2,400, which includes airfare, the World Youth Day fee, and a bus and tour guide in Sydney. The price also includes basic accommodations (parish halls, school gyms, etc.), meals, transportation and health coverage. A special free World Youth Day Visa will be issued to registered attendants.
To raise money, the youths at St. Leo will sell cookbooks, bike the Washington & Old Dominion Trail and be “rented out” to parishioners to do yard- or house-work in exchange for a donation to the World Youth Day cause.
“With that the kids are learning service and the parishioners will get to know the youth group,” Vezina said.
Since World Youth Day was initiated by the late Pope John Paul II in 1986, the pilgrimage to Sydney is the 10th international World Youth Day and the 23rd over all; it will mark Pope Benedict XVI’s first trip to Australia.
Though the pope will be making an appearance, Bohli said that it was important to remind the youths that they are not only going to see the pontiff — or a new part of the world.
“We want to make sure that the teens understand that this isn’t a vacation,” he said. “It’s a spiritual journey. We’re not just going to see the pope. We’re going to the foot of the cross.”
According to the World Youth Day Web site, the World Youth Day cross is an international symbol for Catholics that Pope John Paul II gave to the youths of the world in 1983 to be carried worldwide “as a symbol of Christ's love for humanity.” It is currently in South Korea on its long journey through Oceania to Australia.
World Youth Day will be chock-full, with opening and closing Masses, catechesis, a youth festival, a papal welcome, reconciliation, eucharistic adoration, social justice forums, service opportunities, a vocations expo, Stations of the Cross, and a pilgrim walk around Sydney.
These activities will enable the youths to find Christ in themselves and in others, Bohli said.
“The whole idea of pilgrimage is something that a lot of people have lost sight of in our faith,” he added.
The Office of Youth Ministry also will be leading an extended trip — five extra days before the pilgrimage where youths can visit a not-yet-determined other location, such as Australia, New Zealand or the Great Barrier Reef.
World Youth Day will not end when the youths deplane back at Dulles International Airport. Upon returning to the diocese, pilgrims will have an opportunity to share their experiences with their parishes and to participate in follow-up meetings, discussions and service projects. This way, as the World Youth Day prayer says, the youths may be “true witnesses to (God’s) power and grace.”
For more information on World Youth Day go to www.wyd2008.org. For registration information contact your parish youth minister or the diocesan Office of Youth Ministry at 703/841-2559.

Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.