PANAMA CITY — If there was a common denominator, aside from the
Christian faith, that united most pilgrims heading to the opening Mass for
World Youth Day 2019 in Panama, it was that each person, in his or her own way,
faced a challenge back home.
Pilgrims from places such as El Salvador, Zimbabwe and the
Dominican Republic spoke of increasing violence, political or otherwise,
threatening their general populations. Others from places such as Australia and
the United States spoke of growing secularism affecting the religious beliefs
of their peers.
And yet, almost every one of them wore a smile and most
importantly, many of them expressed the belief that most of the problems had a
solution and that each could be overcome with a belief in a Christ who offers,
not riches, nor power, but hope — to help themselves and to help others.
"I want to be ignited to give hope to more people,"
said Jesuit Father Ignatius Padya, 34, who was traveling with a group of
pilgrims from Zambia, Mozambique and his own country of Zimbabwe in southern
Africa to the opening Mass Jan. 22 of the international event organized by the
Catholic Church, which also welcomed other Christians and those of other
religious or no spiritual beliefs.
One thing he realized, Father Padya told Catholic News Service,
is that for people in Latin America, compared to those in Africa, "our
histories and experiences are similar," he said. He wanted the young
pilgrims he traveled with to understand that just as Latin America has a
history of pain, it also has a history of faith and beauty, and the people in
the region have something to offer — and Africans, no matter what challenges
they face, also have gifts to offer.
"As Catholics, I want them to share what they have and to
get something from them," said Father Padya. "I want them to go home
and do more for God."
The theme of the 2019 World Youth Day, the first Marian one used
in the event's history, encouraged that attitude: "I am the servant of the
Lord. May it be done to me according to your word," recalling Mary's
response to God.
It's exactly that kind of giving of oneself that attracted
Valeria Lopez of Mexico to attend the event in Panama, she said.
"I want to fill myself with that love," she said,
walking fast en route to listen to Panamanian Archbishop Jose Ulloa Mendieta,
who celebrated the opening Mass in Panama City's Campo Santa Maria la Antigua.
Mary, the archbishop said, "was posed to you as a model of
valor, courage, who made herself available to comply with God's plans, the ones
which he had selected for her and whose answer is the motto of this World Youth
Day."
That call, he said, still applies today.
For 24-year-old Matthew French, that call means helping out more
in his diocese in Australia's Central Coast, perhaps in chaplaincy, but also in
encouraging a sense of a faith community in a country that faces challenges
with secularism.
"Like most Western countries, it's not great," he said
about the religious scene of Australia, although the 2008 World Youth Day held
in his country "galvanized people."
Likewise, Archbishop Ulloa, in his opening homily, expressed hope
that the gathering in Panama this year would offer something similar, a
"balm," he called it, for the problems facing teens, adolescents and
young adults in what he called the "existential and geographic peripheries."
He called particular attention to ethnic youth, indigenous and
those of African descent, as well as those who face forced migration for a
variety of reasons that expose them to dangerous situations such as human
trafficking, drugs, delinquency and other social ills, he said.
He wanted them to know, he said, that they were important and
they were the reason for an enormous effort of human mobilization that allowed
their pilgrimage to happen.
"Thanks to your presence, this country is now the capital of
the youth of the world, one where, with human warmth, and also the warm climate
typical for this time of year, create favorable conditions so that you can
mingle with your peers, share dreams, hopes and projects, that, by the force of
the Holy Spirit, can help you make a revolution of love possible, which will
not be easy, but neither will it be impossible, if we place our trust in
God," he said.
Panamanian parishes and homes where many of the pilgrims were
welcomed received training to give a welcoming that offered "the best we
have, love, closeness, fraternity, to adopt you as a true family, the family of
God."
What the archbishop said weren't mere words to give the pilgrims
a good feeling. Cars, trucks, motorcycles honked and yelled good wishes at
pilgrims who walked through the streets of Panama City. Welcome groups in the
streets high-fived them and citizens offered warm greetings whenever they
spotted them wearing their red, white and blue T-shirts with "JMJ"
written on them, the initials in Spanish for Jornada Mundial de la Juventud, or
World Youth Day.
But the archbishop also acknowledged the real problems some of
them faced. Many of the young Central Americans, he said, come from indigenous
communities or are descendants of Africans — significant populations of the
continent who live largely excluded and discriminated against, leading to lives
of poverty on the margins of society.
It was a message pilgrim Mildred Garcia, of San Cristobal,
Dominican Republic, understood well because she sees some of that in her peers,
she said, and as they experience exclusion, they're also drawn away from the
church and toward delinquency, sometimes looking for escape, she said.
For her, faith is the anchor, she said, and World Youth Day this
year was about renewing that faith.
Archbishop Ulloa said it was his hope that the church's
teachings, the sacraments, the kinship of the upcoming days would bring about
an encounter with Jesus Christ for those facing challenges and help them
confront certain feelings within, particularly the "anti-values" of a
system that offers a false sense of happiness.
"One that leads to experiment desperately with so many
things that damage the mind and the spirit, but in the end cannot fill the
existential void," he said.
Just as in the time of Christ, young people today seek
"witness," he said, and offered those at the Mass an array of models
from Latin America: St. Martin de Porres, St. Rosa of Lima, St. Juan Diego, St.
Jose Sanchez del Rio, St. Juan Bosco, Blessed Sor Maria Romero Meneses, and the
most recent one: St. Oscar Arnulfo Romero. All of them show, he said, that a
life of sanctity is possible in all cultures, in all ethnicities, without
regard to gender, nor age. A giving of one's life for God and neighbor is the
road to sanctity, he said. Saints, he said, defend the defenseless: the unborn,
the one born in misery, migrants.
A saint, he said, "seeks justice, prays, lives and loves the
community, is happy, has a sense of humor, always is in the struggle, leaves
mediocrity behind, lives the mercy of God and shares it with the
neighbor."
He told them not to be afraid of that kind of sainthood. A saint
is not one chosen simply to place a face on a prayer card. A saint goes against
the current, he said. And this is what the pilgrimage of World Youth Day is
about.
"Don't be afraid, be courageous to be a saint in today's
world," he concluded. "You're not renouncing your youth or
happiness."
Finally, he implored: "Keep making the adults nervous, keep
detaching yourselves from the things that tie us down and won't let us be true
Christians."