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CNS Story:
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Faith Alive!-No. 27
World Youth Day 2002 in the 'meeting place'
By Father Michael Kerrigan, CSP
Catholic News Service
When I was the pastor of St. Peter's Parish in Toronto in 2002, I had the unique and memorable opportunity to participate in World Youth Day, which Toronto hosted that year from July 23 to 28.
Much spiritual and logistical preparation took place for this event. Parishioners opened their homes to pilgrims who came from over 150 countries. Thousands of volunteers helped welcome the youth of the world.
How fitting for Toronto, a city whose name means "meeting place," to host such a gathering.
A month prior to that World Youth Day, our parish had the privilege of having the World Youth Day cross for a special celebration hosted by communities of religious men and women in Toronto. More than 1,200 people took part in the afternoon prayer services and evening Mass June 24, the feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist.
During the weeklong events of World Youth Day, our parish hosted three morning Spanish-language catechetical sessions led by different bishops. Close to 1,000 people attended each day. Our parish's capital campaign efforts had made possible the installation of a new church sound system and new washrooms -- timely additions for hosting the World Youth Day pilgrims.
I served as a confessor during the afternoons at an outdoor location in Coronation Park on Toronto's Exhibition Grounds. I also concelebrated at the closing Sunday Mass attended by over 800,000.
The theme of the 2008 World Youth Day to take place in Sydney, Australia, in July is taken from Acts 1:8: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses."
This biblical verse refers to a time after the death and resurrection of Jesus and prior to the Lord's ascension to the Father. It also recalls the birth of the church and its missionary outreach to the world.
Continuing that outreach and aiming it specifically at youth, Pope John Paul II initiated World Youth Day in 1986 as a way for young people to celebrate their Catholic faith.
The next World Youth Day gathering was in 1987 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, followed by Santiago de Compostela, Spain (1989); Czestochowa, Poland (1991); Denver (1993); Manila, Philippines (1995); Paris (1997); Rome (2000); Toronto (2002); and Cologne, Germany (2005).
Preparations for these international gatherings include the host site selecting a biblical verse as the theme for that year's World Youth Day celebration, creating a logo and commissioning a theme song or anthem to be composed.
On the Palm Sunday of the year prior to an international World Youth Day, the special World Youth Day cross originally entrusted by Pope John Paul II to the youth of the world on Palm Sunday in 1986 is used in a special ceremony in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.
Representatives from the most recent host site present this cross to youth representatives of the nation that will host the next World Youth Day.
Like the Olympic torch, the World Youth Day cross then makes its way across various locations for the months leading up to the next World Youth Day's opening ceremony.
Paulist Father Kerrigan is an editor at Paulist Press, Mahwah, N.J.
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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