In order to understand the size and potential power of a World Youth Day, conjure ‘the’ common Americana experience. Perhaps the only American born experience that even remotely approaches the immensity of a World Youth Day is a professional sporting event, or a very large concert. Many, if not all Americans, have at one point in their life attended one or the other. Now with America’s pastime being baseball, and the average capacity of ballparks near 50,000 people, let us use this image to dream. Now picture your last ballpark experience, then multiply that image by 40. This sea of people in your mind is what you begin to approach for the final World Youth Day liturgical experience, the closing mass!

*Addendum* Personally, Coors Field is the state of Colorado’s home ballpark, which can hold 50,454 people. Conceptualizing 40 Coors Field’s side-by-side brings the Church’s size and potential into perspective. But now imagine how many Coors Fields the Catholic Church would need to build to host the 1 billion baptized Catholics at Sunday mass every week? 20,000 in case you were wondering. I digress…

Read on: Without any hesitation at all, the best experiences of my life have been at World Youth Day. By God’s grace, I was blessed with the opportunity to attend Paris, Rome, Toronto, and Cologne’s World Youth Day growing up. No college degree or crash course on the faith could have taught me more about my Catholic heritage. Without a doubt, the power of attending one mass with two million people has helped fortify my love for Christ and the Church he founded upon the Rock.

Photo: Giuseppe Cacace/Getty Images Aug 16, 2005

Spreading the sea of the lay faithful is the Cross at the closing mass. The Cross pictured to the right was given to the youth at the first World Youth Day in Rome, in 1986, by John Paul II. Since that time it has journeyed millions of miles to remind all, of God’s love for us. As the millions descend upon ‘the fields’ for the final liturgy, this cross focuses the crowds and makes its way to the altar where the pope presides over the holy sacrifice of the mass.

Prior to beginning this four day series on World Youth Day, ambitions to encapsulate the experience into a compact, understandable, and succinct package was the dream. But it is just too good. Too much holiness in a single place. Too much passion for authenticity all at once. I mean think about it, imagine a communion line that is a half mile long people? That is holiness. That is faith! That is World Youth Day. Young (and chaperones too!) lovers of truth! True joy. Jovial hope for a better world when they leave that sea of pilgrims. If God can bring 2,000,000 young people to one spot from the death grip of this culture, then He can do anything! We face the darkest hours in the 21st century, and it may become even darker. For all who read this, consider attending World Youth Day. If you want hope for the future, an experience of authentic love that you can reference for the rest of your life, then go to World Youth Day, preferably the next one in Spain, 2011! Click on the picture below for the link to the website. God Bless, ‘rise, let us be on our way.’

© 2009 Diocese of Paisley

To catch yourself up to speed on World Youth Day’s history, consider reading Part I & II from the previous two days, which can be found below. If you want to dive right into the actual experience of being at a World Youth Day, then press on.

St. Peter’s Square, 1986, 300,000 young lay faithful, descended upon the Vatican, to heed John Paull II’s call: “Always be prepared to make a defence to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you (1 Pet 3:15).” This was the message that echoed through the colonnades of St. Peter’s Basilica at that first World Youth Day. Now, twenty-three years later, the spirit of World Youth Day carries on. The Second Vatican Council’s original salutation to the youth, and a Pope’s unrelenting guidance, brought this Catholic pilgrimage to Rome two times, Argentina, Spain, Poland, Denver(!), the Philippines (largest), France, Canada, Germany, Australia, and before you know it, Spain, in the summer of 2011.

Yes, the Catholic faith is everywhere, because the body of Christ is everywhere. We span the globe. No continent has gone untouched by the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Notice the third mark of the Church in the Nicene Creed, penned in 325 AD, at the Council of Nicea, Catholic. What does Catholic mean? Universal. What is meant by universal? “Hence the universal Church is seen to be ‘a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (CC 810).’” As Catholics, we have been endowed by God through the Church, with His Son and the Holy Spirit. By our baptism, we enter into this communion, which manifests in full at World Youth Day.

Arriving at a World Youth Day experience for a pilgrim does not begin in an indescribable sea of  a million young Catholics, but rather in a smaller gathering five days prior in a dioceses outside the host city. In preparation for that gathering of millions, this time of ‘Days in the Dioceses,’ or also known as ‘Days of Encounter,’ is a place where pilgrims connect on a deeper level with other Catholics from around the world. Whether its a three hour mass due to translation adjustments, or a night of African dancing, pilgrims delve deeper into their faith through the exposure to many Catholic cultures.

It may also be a time when one may pray for ‘the rush of a mighty wind, so that tongues of fire might descend and allow one to speak in other tongues.’ This prayer and fruition of tongues would be an incredible blessing. For the universality of the Church, and diversity of languages awakes and at times confuses eyes and ears alike. For instance, in Germany, the other Catholic pilgrims that were assigned to our dioceses included Mexico, Lithuania, and Tanzania, just to name a few. Despite language barriers, although much of the world now speaks fluent English, pilgrims of all nations unite under Jesus Christ. ‘For wherever two are gathered in my name, I am present.’

To paint the picture of diversity, universality, the Catholic Church, simply scan the palette of world flags below. This is your greeting at World Youth Day as the millions descend from five days of encounter with the richness of the faith! Imagine the power behind this gathering. Return for more, as the charter buses and vans carry the millions of pilgrims from the surrounding dioceses to the host city, in preparation for the arrival of Peter’s successor.

Yes, fields of the world have, and will continue to host the largest gathering of youth this earth has ever seen. This call to a communal Catholic festival every three years was conceived by the Second Vatican Council, now called World Youth Day. Do you know what a council is? To stay on track, lets just say important decisions are made at councils that affect the entire Church. The Catholic Church is 2,000 years old. There have been 21 councils of the Church, so about every 100 years the Pope convenes one, that is not very often. Now if you look back into the archives of the Second Vatican Council documents, which took place from 1962-1965, its closing documents are a direct call to the young lay faithful. Here is one excerpt.

‘Lastly, it is to you, young men and women of the world, that the Council wishes to address its FINAL message. For four years the Church has been working to rejuvenate her image in order to respond better to the design of her Founder, the great Living One, the Christ who is eternally young. Look upon the Church and you will find in her the face of Christ, the genuine, humble, and wise Hero, the Prophet of truth and love, the Companion and Friend of youth.’ ~  Drawn from final message of the Second Vatican Council ~

Clearly, the message’s mass is dense. The picture is focused. The ‘call’ is ringing. And twenty five years later, Pope John Paul II answered the Second Vatican convocation, by inviting all youth of the world to join him at the first ever World Youth Day, in 1986. The Second Vatican Council was the foundation for World Youth Day’s continued growth. From it’s humble beginnings of 300,000 participants in Rome, to its largest of 4,000,000 plus in Manila, World Youth Day took flight by John Paul II’s guidance, and the Second Vatican Council’s spirit.

So why a field? Why millions of human beings laughing, sharing, praying, crying, and worshipping together? The simple answer, we are one body. We are the Catholic Church. We are universal. And we literally have sunken roots in the most and least likely places on earth. World Youth Day is the one liturgy, once every three years, where the Pope, the Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ, and the humble servant to the Church, presides over the breaking of the bread with millions. The liturgical field of worship, the mass, is the apex of World Youth Day’s celebration, but there is more…

Liturgically, World Youth Day must be one of the most spectacular celebrations during a pontiff’s service to the Church. For the public witness entirely shatters the world’s mold of Catholic worship. Tragically though, dear friends within my generation grow increasingly skeptical and indignant with their perceived royalty of the Catholic Church and its 2,000 year old worship. The bells, the smells, the crosiers and mitres, are the outward signs that fuel their illiterate notions. However, to avoid going afield with this sticker, defending the rich depth of the Catholic liturgy must await another day. But we must be aware that liturgical illiteracy and respect continues its unfettered course in 2009; I literally know the evidence. Of course Catholics have the chapels and basilicas, the vestments and mitres, but we also have 2 million young people sleeping under the stars, awaiting the holy sacrifice of the Mass! This is the leaping point from which World Youth Day will be explored in future posts, Mass with the Holy Father in plush fields of the young lay faithful. Come back for further exploration into this liturgical festival, into this too-well-kept secret of Catholic tradition.

So, it is official, our 2009-2010 Youth Ministry year has begun. On Sunday,we had our first youth group meeting of the year and judging by the reactions of all those present and the level of participation by all members, I must say, we are off to a great start and are looking forward to a fun year. The fun started right away with several icebreakers (some foolishness on my part at the thought that teenagers have heard of “The Name Game” song) and kept going even through the small group discussions and large group interaction. By the time we broke for free time and snacks everyone was having a great time and seemed to have gotten a lot out of the discussion about World Mission Sunday and what it means to be a missionary.

We discussed the life of St. Francis Xavier and emphasized how he was the second most successful missionary in the history of the Church behind St. Paul. We then focused on what he did and why he was so successful. Outside of being willing to put up with very harsh conditions, this man recognized the importance of living what he taught and truly believed that the people who had not heard of Christ and did not believe in Christ were missing out on something! He then simply took it upon himself to feed them with the truth. That is what it means to be a missionary, to evangelize and to spread the love of Christ through both your words and actions. So, everyone is a missionary and everyone knows people who don’t believe the Truth taught by the Catholic Church. In fact, many of us struggle to understand and believe these teachings. So we must all take it upon ourselves to feed those around us with the Truth by our example and by our words. See this link for thoughts on this by Pope Benedict XVI and check out the bottom of this link for the quotes of St. Francis Xavier we used to further explore our role as missionaries.

At the end of our meeting we discussed very briefly all the upcoming events we have planned through the end of January. We may be adding more, but please check out the upcoming events page for all the details and to sign up.

Your Eminences,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Presbyterate,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

“Expergiscere, homo:  quia pro te Deus factus est homo – Wake up, O man! For your sake God became man” (St Augustine, Sermo, 185). With the Christmas celebrations now at hand, I am opening my Meeting with you, dear collaborators of the Roman Curia, with St Augustine’s invitation to understand the true meaning of Christ’s Birth.

I address to each one my most cordial greeting and I thank you for the sentiments of devotion and affection, effectively conveyed to me by your Cardinal Dean, to whom I address my gratitude.

God became man for our sake: this is the message which, every year, from the silent grotto of Bethlehem spreads even to the most out-of-the-way corners of the earth. Christmas is a feast of light and peace, it is a day of inner wonder and joy that expands throughout the universe, because “God became man”. From the humble grotto of Bethlehem, the eternal Son of God, who became a tiny Child, addresses each one of us:  he calls us, invites us to be reborn in him so that, with him, we may live eternally in communion with the Most Holy Trinity.

Our hearts brimming with the joy that comes from this knowledge, let us think back to the events of the year that is coming to an end. We have behind us great events which have left a deep mark on the life of the Church. I am thinking first and foremost of the departure of our beloved Holy Father John Paul II, preceded by a long period of suffering and the gradual loss of speech. No Pope has left us such a quantity of texts as he has bequeathed to us; no previous Pope was able to visit the whole world like him and speak directly to people from all the continents.

In the end, however, his lot was a journey of suffering and silence. Unforgettable for us are the images of Palm Sunday when, holding an olive branch and marked by pain, he came to the window and imparted the Lord’s Blessing as he himself was about to walk towards the Cross.

Next was the scene in his Private Chapel when, holding the Crucifix, he took part in the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum, where he had so often led the procession carrying the Cross himself.

Lastly came his silent Blessing on Easter Sunday, in which we saw the promise of the Resurrection, of eternal life, shine out through all his suffering. With his words and actions, the Holy Father gave us great things; equally important is the lesson he imparted to us from the chair of suffering and silence.

In his last book “Memory and Identity” (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005), he has left us an interpretation of suffering that is not a theological or philosophical theory but a fruit that matured on his personal path of suffering which he walked, sustained by faith in the Crucified Lord. This interpretation, which he worked out in faith and which gave meaning to his suffering lived in communion with that of the Lord, spoke through his silent pain, transforming it into an important message.

Both at the beginning and once again at the end of the book mentioned, the Pope shows that he is deeply touched by the spectacle of the power of evil, which we dramatically experienced in the century that has just ended. He says in his text:  “The evil… was not a small-scale evil…. It was an evil of gigantic proportions, an evil which availed itself of state structures in order to accomplish its wicked work, an evil built up into a system” (p. 189).

Might evil be invincible? Is it the ultimate power of history? Because of the experience of evil, for Pope Wojty³a the question of redemption became the essential and central question of his life and thought as a Christian. Is there a limit against which the power of evil shatters? “Yes, there is”, the Pope replies in this book of his, as well as in his Encyclical on redemption.

The power that imposes a limit on evil is Divine Mercy. Violence, the display of evil, is opposed in history – as “the totally other” of God, God’s own power – by Divine Mercy. The Lamb is stronger than the dragon, we could say together with the Book of Revelation.

At the end of the book, in a retrospective review of the attack of 13 May 1981 and on the basis of the experience of his journey with God and with the world, John Paul II further deepened this answer.

What limits the force of evil, the power, in brief, which overcomes it – this is how he says it – is God’s suffering, the suffering of the Son of God on the Cross:  “The suffering of the Crucified God is not just one form of suffering alongside others…. In sacrificing himself for us all, Christ gave a new meaning to suffering, opening up a new dimension, a new order:  the order of love…. The passion of Christ on the Cross gave a radically new meaning to suffering, transforming it from within…. It is this suffering which burns and consumes evil with the flame of love…. All human suffering, all pain, all infirmity contains within itself a promise of salvation;… evil is present in the world partly so as to awaken our love, our self-gift in generous and disinterested service to those visited by suffering…. Christ has redeemed the world:  “By his wounds we are healed’ (Is 53: 5)” (p. 189, ff.).

All this is not merely learned theology, but the expression of a faith lived and matured through suffering. Of course, we must do all we can to alleviate suffering and prevent the injustice that causes the suffering of the innocent. However, we must also do the utmost to ensure that people can discover the meaning of suffering and are thus able to accept their own suffering and to unite it with the suffering of Christ.

In this way, it is merged with redemptive love and consequently becomes a force against the evil in the world.

The response across the world to the Pope’s death was an overwhelming demonstration of gratitude for the fact that in his ministry he offered himself totally to God for the world; a thanksgiving for the fact that in a world full of hatred and violence he taught anew love and suffering in the service of others; he showed us, so to speak, in the flesh, the Redeemer, redemption, and gave us the certainty that indeed, evil does not have the last word in the world.

I would now like to mention, if briefly, another two events also initiated by Pope John Paul II:  they are the World Youth Day celebrated in Cologne and the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, which also ended the Year of the Eucharist inaugurated by Pope John Paul II.

The World Youth Day has lived on as a great gift in the memory of those present. More than a million young people gathered in the City of Cologne on the Rhine River and in the neighbouring towns to listen together to the Word of God, to pray together, to receive the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, to sing and to celebrate together, to rejoice in life and to worship and receive the Lord in the Eucharist during the great meetings on Saturday evening and Sunday. Joy simply reigned throughout those days.

Apart from keeping order, the police had nothing to do – the Lord had gathered his family, tangibly overcoming every frontier and barrier, and in the great communion between us, he made us experience his presence.

The motto chosen for those days – “We have come to worship him!”, contained two great images which encouraged the right approach from the outset. First there was the image of the pilgrimage, the image of the person who, looking beyond his own affairs and daily life, sets out in search of his essential destination, the truth, the right life, God.

This image of the person on his way towards the goal of life contained another two clear indications.
First of all, there was the invitation not to see the world that surrounds us solely as raw material with which we can do something, but to try to discover in it “the Creator’s handwriting”, the creative reason and the love from which the world was born and of which the universe speaks to us, if we pay attention, if our inner senses awaken and acquire perception of the deepest dimensions of reality.

As a second element there is a further invitation: to listen to the historical revelation which alone can offer us the key to the interpretation of the silent mystery of creation, pointing out to us the practical way towards the true Lord of the world and of history, who conceals himself in the poverty of the stable in Bethlehem.

The other image contained in the World Youth Day motto was the person worshipping:  “We have come to worship him”. Before any activity, before the world can change there must be worship. Worship alone sets us truly free; worship alone gives us the criteria for our action. Precisely in a world in which guiding criteria are absent and the threat exists that each person will be a law unto himself, it is fundamentally necessary to stress worship.

For all those who were present the intense silence of that million young people remains unforgettable, a silence that united and uplifted us all when the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament was placed on the altar. Let us cherish in our hearts the images of Cologne:  they are signs that continue to be valid. Without mentioning individual names, I would like on this occasion to thank everyone who made World Youth Day possible; but especially, let us together thank the Lord, for indeed, he alone could give us those days in the way in which we lived them.

The word “adoration” [worship] brings us to the second great event that I wish to talk about:  the Synod of Bishops and the Year of the Eucharist. Pope John Paul II, with the Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia and the Apostolic Letter Mane Nobiscum Domine, gave us the essential clues and at the same time, with his personal experience of Eucharistic faith, put the Church’s teaching into practice.

Moreover, the Congregation for Divine Worship, in close connection with the Encyclical, published the Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum as a practical guide to the correct implementation of the conciliar Constitution on the liturgy and liturgical reform. In addition to all this, was it really possible to say anything new, to develop further the whole of this teaching?

This was exactly the great experience of the Synod, during which a reflection of the riches of the Eucharistic life of the Church today and the inexhaustibility of her Eucharistic faith could be perceived in the Fathers’ contributions. What the Fathers thought and expressed must be presented, in close connection with the Propositiones of the Synod, in a Post-Synodal Document.

Here, once again, I only wish to underline that point which a little while ago we already mentioned in the context of World Youth Day:  adoration of the Risen Lord, present in the Eucharist with flesh and blood, with body and soul, with divinity and humanity.

It is moving for me to see how everywhere in the Church the joy of Eucharistic adoration is reawakening and being fruitful. In the period of liturgical reform, Mass and adoration outside it were often seen as in opposition to one another:  it was thought that the Eucharistic Bread had not been given to us to be contemplated, but to be eaten, as a widespread objection claimed at that time.

The experience of the prayer of the Church has already shown how nonsensical this antithesis was. Augustine had formerly said:  “…nemo autem illam carnem manducat, nisi prius adoraverit;… peccemus non adorando - No one should eat this flesh without first adoring it;… we should sin were we not to adore it” (cf. Enarr. in Ps 98: 9 CCL XXXIX 1385).

Indeed, we do not merely receive something in the Eucharist. It is the encounter and unification of persons; the person, however, who comes to meet us and desires to unite himself to us is the Son of God. Such unification can only be brought about by means of adoration.

Receiving the Eucharist means adoring the One whom we receive. Precisely in this way and only in this way do we become one with him. Therefore, the development of Eucharistic adoration, as it took shape during the Middle Ages, was the most consistent consequence of the Eucharistic mystery itself:  only in adoration can profound and true acceptance develop. And it is precisely this personal act of encounter with the Lord that develops the social mission which is contained in the Eucharist and desires to break down barriers, not only the barriers between the Lord and us but also and above all those that separate us from one another.

The last event of this year on which I wish to reflect here is the celebration of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council 40 years ago. This memory prompts the question: What has been the result of the Council? Was it well received? What, in the acceptance of the Council, was good and what was inadequate or mistaken? What still remains to be done? No one can deny that in vast areas of the Church the implementation of the Council has been somewhat difficult, even without wishing to apply to what occurred in these years the description that St Basil, the great Doctor of the Church, made of the Church’s situation after the Council of Nicea:  he compares her situation to a naval battle in the darkness of the storm, saying among other things:  “The raucous shouting of those who through disagreement rise up against one another, the incomprehensible chatter, the confused din of uninterrupted clamouring, has now filled almost the whole of the Church, falsifying through excess or failure the right doctrine of the faith…” (De Spiritu Sancto, XXX, 77; PG 32, 213 A; SCh 17 ff., p. 524).

We do not want to apply precisely this dramatic description to the situation of the post-conciliar period, yet something from all that occurred is nevertheless reflected in it. The question arises:  Why has the implementation of the Council, in large parts of the Church, thus far been so difficult?

Well, it all depends on the correct interpretation of the Council or – as we would say today – on its proper hermeneutics, the correct key to its interpretation and application. The problems in its implementation arose from the fact that two contrary hermeneutics came face to face and quarrelled with each other. One caused confusion, the other, silently but more and more visibly, bore and is bearing fruit.

On the one hand, there is an interpretation that I would call “a hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture”; it has frequently availed itself of the sympathies of the mass media, and also one trend of modern theology. On the other, there is the “hermeneutic of reform”, of renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church which the Lord has given to us. She is a subject which increases in time and develops, yet always remaining the same, the one subject of the journeying People of God.

The hermeneutic of discontinuity risks ending in a split between the pre-conciliar Church and the post-conciliar Church. It asserts that the texts of the Council as such do not yet express the true spirit of the Council. It claims that they are the result of compromises in which, to reach unanimity, it was found necessary to keep and reconfirm many old things that are now pointless. However, the true spirit of the Council is not to be found in these compromises but instead in the impulses toward the new that are contained in the texts.

These innovations alone were supposed to represent the true spirit of the Council, and starting from and in conformity with them, it would be possible to move ahead. Precisely because the texts would only imperfectly reflect the true spirit of the Council and its newness, it would be necessary to go courageously beyond the texts and make room for the newness in which the Council’s deepest intention would be expressed, even if it were still vague.

In a word:  it would be necessary not to follow the texts of the Council but its spirit. In this way, obviously, a vast margin was left open for the question on how this spirit should subsequently be defined and room was consequently made for every whim.

The nature of a Council as such is therefore basically misunderstood. In this way, it is considered as a sort of constituent that eliminates an old constitution and creates a new one. However, the Constituent Assembly needs a mandator and then confirmation by the mandator, in other words, the people the constitution must serve. The Fathers had no such mandate and no one had ever given them one; nor could anyone have given them one because the essential constitution of the Church comes from the Lord and was given to us so that we might attain eternal life and, starting from this perspective, be able to illuminate life in time and time itself.

Through the Sacrament they have received, Bishops are stewards of the Lord’s gift. They are “stewards of the mysteries of God” (I Cor 4: 1); as such, they must be found to be “faithful” and “wise” (cf. Lk 12: 41-48). This requires them to administer the Lord’s gift in the right way, so that it is not left concealed in some hiding place but bears fruit, and the Lord may end by saying to the administrator:  “Since you were dependable in a small matter I will put you in charge of larger affairs” (cf. Mt 25: 14-30; Lk 19: 11-27).

These Gospel parables express the dynamic of fidelity required in the Lord’s service; and through them it becomes clear that, as in a Council, the dynamic and fidelity must converge.

The hermeneutic of discontinuity is countered by the hermeneutic of reform, as it was presented first by Pope John XXIII in his Speech inaugurating the Council on 11 October 1962 and later by Pope Paul VI in his Discourse for the Council’s conclusion on 7 December 1965.

Here I shall cite only John XXIII’s well-known words, which unequivocally express this hermeneutic when he says that the Council wishes “to transmit the doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion”. And he continues:  “Our duty is not only to guard this precious treasure, as if we were concerned only with antiquity, but to dedicate ourselves with an earnest will and without fear to that work which our era demands of us…”. It is necessary that “adherence to all the teaching of the Church in its entirety and preciseness…” be presented in “faithful and perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, which, however, should be studied and expounded through the methods of research and through the literary forms of modern thought. The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another…”, retaining the same meaning and message (The Documents of Vatican II, Walter M. Abbott, S.J., p. 715).

It is clear that this commitment to expressing a specific truth in a new way demands new thinking on this truth and a new and vital relationship with it; it is also clear that new words can only develop if they come from an informed understanding of the truth expressed, and on the other hand, that a reflection on faith also requires that this faith be lived. In this regard, the programme that Pope John XXIII proposed was extremely demanding, indeed, just as the synthesis of fidelity and dynamic is demanding.

However, wherever this interpretation guided the implementation of the Council, new life developed and new fruit ripened. Forty years after the Council, we can show that the positive is far greater and livelier than it appeared to be in the turbulent years around 1968. Today, we see that although the good seed developed slowly, it is nonetheless growing; and our deep gratitude for the work done by the Council is likewise growing.

In his Discourse closing the Council, Paul VI pointed out a further specific reason why a hermeneutic of discontinuity can seem convincing.

In the great dispute about man which marks the modern epoch, the Council had to focus in particular on the theme of anthropology. It had to question the relationship between the Church and her faith on the one hand, and man and the contemporary world on the other (cf. ibid.). The question becomes even clearer if, instead of the generic term “contemporary world”, we opt for another that is more precise:  the Council had to determine in a new way the relationship between the Church and the modern era.

This relationship had a somewhat stormy beginning with the Galileo case. It was then totally interrupted when Kant described “religion within pure reason” and when, in the radical phase of the French Revolution, an image of the State and the human being that practically no longer wanted to allow the Church any room was disseminated.

In the 19th century under Pius IX, the clash between the Church’s faith and a radical liberalism and the natural sciences, which also claimed to embrace with their knowledge the whole of reality to its limit, stubbornly proposing to make the “hypothesis of God” superfluous, had elicited from the Church a bitter and radical condemnation of this spirit of the modern age. Thus, it seemed that there was no longer any milieu open to a positive and fruitful understanding, and the rejection by those who felt they were the representatives of the modern era was also drastic.

In the meantime, however, the modern age had also experienced developments. People came to realize that the American Revolution was offering a model of a modern State that differed from the theoretical model with radical tendencies that had emerged during the second phase of the French Revolution.

The natural sciences were beginning to reflect more and more clearly their own limitations imposed by their own method, which, despite achieving great things, was nevertheless unable to grasp the global nature of reality.

So it was that both parties were gradually beginning to open up to each other. In the period between the two World Wars and especially after the Second World War, Catholic statesmen demonstrated that a modern secular State could exist that was not neutral regarding values but alive, drawing from the great ethical sources opened by Christianity.

Catholic social doctrine, as it gradually developed, became an important model between radical liberalism and the Marxist theory of the State. The natural sciences, which without reservation professed a method of their own to which God was barred access, realized ever more clearly that this method did not include the whole of reality. Hence, they once again opened their doors to God, knowing that reality is greater than the naturalistic method and all that it can encompass.

It might be said that three circles of questions had formed which then, at the time of the Second Vatican Council, were expecting an answer. First of all, the relationship between faith and modern science had to be redefined. Furthermore, this did not only concern the natural sciences but also historical science for, in a certain school, the historical-critical method claimed to have the last word on the interpretation of the Bible and, demanding total exclusivity for its interpretation of Sacred Scripture, was opposed to important points in the interpretation elaborated by the faith of the Church.

Secondly, it was necessary to give a new definition to the relationship between the Church and the modern State that would make room impartially for citizens of various religions and ideologies, merely assuming responsibility for an orderly and tolerant coexistence among them and for the freedom to practise their own religion.

Thirdly, linked more generally to this was the problem of religious tolerance – a question that required a new definition of the relationship between the Christian faith and the world religions. In particular, before the recent crimes of the Nazi regime and, in general, with a retrospective look at a long and difficult history, it was necessary to evaluate and define in a new way the relationship between the Church and the faith of Israel.

These are all subjects of great importance – they were the great themes of the second part of the Council – on which it is impossible to reflect more broadly in this context. It is clear that in all these sectors, which all together form a single problem, some kind of discontinuity might emerge. Indeed, a discontinuity had been revealed but in which, after the various distinctions between concrete historical situations and their requirements had been made, the continuity of principles proved not to have been abandoned. It is easy to miss this fact at a first glance.

It is precisely in this combination of continuity and discontinuity at different levels that the very nature of true reform consists. In this process of innovation in continuity we must learn to understand more practically than before that the Church’s decisions on contingent matters – for example, certain practical forms of liberalism or a free interpretation of the Bible – should necessarily be contingent themselves, precisely because they refer to a specific reality that is changeable in itself. It was necessary to learn to recognize that in these decisions it is only the principles that express the permanent aspect, since they remain as an undercurrent, motivating decisions from within.
On the other hand, not so permanent are the practical forms that depend on the historical situation and are therefore subject to change.

Basic decisions, therefore, continue to be well-grounded, whereas the way they are applied to new contexts can change. Thus, for example, if religious freedom were to be considered an expression of the human inability to discover the truth and thus become a canonization of relativism, then this social and historical necessity is raised inappropriately to the metaphysical level and thus stripped of its true meaning. Consequently, it cannot be accepted by those who believe that the human person is capable of knowing the truth about God and, on the basis of the inner dignity of the truth, is bound to this knowledge.

It is quite different, on the other hand, to perceive religious freedom as a need that derives from human coexistence, or indeed, as an intrinsic consequence of the truth that cannot be externally imposed but that the person must adopt only through the process of conviction.

The Second Vatican Council, recognizing and making its own an essential principle of the modern State with the Decree on Religious Freedom, has recovered the deepest patrimony of the Church. By so doing she can be conscious of being in full harmony with the teaching of Jesus himself (cf. Mt 22: 21), as well as with the Church of the martyrs of all time. The ancient Church naturally prayed for the emperors and political leaders out of duty (cf. I Tm 2: 2); but while she prayed for the emperors, she refused to worship them and thereby clearly rejected the religion of the State.

The martyrs of the early Church died for their faith in that God who was revealed in Jesus Christ, and for this very reason they also died for freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess one’s own faith – a profession that no State can impose but which, instead, can only be claimed with God’s grace in freedom of conscience. A missionary Church known for proclaiming her message to all peoples must necessarily work for the freedom of the faith. She desires to transmit the gift of the truth that exists for one and all.

At the same time, she assures peoples and their Governments that she does not wish to destroy their identity and culture by doing so, but to give them, on the contrary, a response which, in their innermost depths, they are waiting for – a response with which the multiplicity of cultures is not lost but instead unity between men and women increases and thus also peace between peoples.

The Second Vatican Council, with its new definition of the relationship between the faith of the Church and certain essential elements of modern thought, has reviewed or even corrected certain historical decisions, but in this apparent discontinuity it has actually preserved and deepened her inmost nature and true identity.

The Church, both before and after the Council, was and is the same Church, one, holy, catholic and apostolic, journeying on through time; she continues “her pilgrimage amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God”, proclaiming the death of the Lord until he comes (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 8).

Those who expected that with this fundamental “yes” to the modern era all tensions would be dispelled and that the “openness towards the world” accordingly achieved would transform everything into pure harmony, had underestimated the inner tensions as well as the contradictions inherent in the modern epoch.

They had underestimated the perilous frailty of human nature which has been a threat to human progress in all the periods of history and in every historical constellation. These dangers, with the new possibilities and new power of man over matter and over himself, did not disappear but instead acquired new dimensions: a look at the history of the present day shows this clearly.

In our time too, the Church remains a “sign that will be opposed” (Lk 2: 34) – not without reason did Pope John Paul II, then still a Cardinal, give this title to the theme for the Spiritual Exercises he preached in 1976 to Pope Paul VI and the Roman Curia. The Council could not have intended to abolish the Gospel’s opposition to human dangers and errors.

On the contrary, it was certainly the Council’s intention to overcome erroneous or superfluous contradictions in order to present to our world the requirement of the Gospel in its full greatness and purity.

The steps the Council took towards the modern era which had rather vaguely been presented as “openness to the world”, belong in short to the perennial problem of the relationship between faith and reason that is re-emerging in ever new forms. The situation that the Council had to face can certainly be compared to events of previous epochs.

In his First Letter, St Peter urged Christians always to be ready to give an answer (apo-logia) to anyone who asked them for the logos, the reason for their faith (cf. 3: 15).

This meant that biblical faith had to be discussed and come into contact with Greek culture and learn to recognize through interpretation the separating line but also the convergence and the affinity between them in the one reason, given by God.

When, in the 13th century through the Jewish and Arab philosophers, Aristotelian thought came into contact with Medieval Christianity formed in the Platonic tradition and faith and reason risked entering an irreconcilable contradiction, it was above all St Thomas Aquinas who mediated the new encounter between faith and Aristotelian philosophy, thereby setting faith in a positive relationship with the form of reason prevalent in his time. There is no doubt that the wearing dispute between modern reason and the Christian faith, which had begun negatively with the Galileo case, went through many phases, but with the Second Vatican Council the time came when broad new thinking was required.

Its content was certainly only roughly traced in the conciliar texts, but this determined its essential direction, so that the dialogue between reason and faith, particularly important today, found its bearings on the basis of the Second Vatican Council.

This dialogue must now be developed with great openmindedness but also with that clear discernment that the world rightly expects of us in this very moment. Thus, today we can look with gratitude at the Second Vatican Council:  if we interpret and implement it guided by a right hermeneutic, it can be and can become increasingly powerful for the ever necessary renewal of the Church.

Lastly, should I perhaps recall once again that 19 April this year on which, to my great surprise, the College of Cardinals elected me as the Successor of Pope John Paul II, as a Successor of St Peter on the chair of the Bishop of Rome? Such an office was far beyond anything I could ever have imagined as my vocation. It was, therefore, only with a great act of trust in God that I was able to say in obedience my “yes” to this choice. Now as then, I also ask you all for your prayer, on whose power and support I rely.

At the same time, I would like to warmly thank all those who have welcomed me and still welcome me with great trust, goodness and understanding, accompanying me day after day with their prayers.

Christmas is now at hand. The Lord God did not counter the threats of history with external power, as we human beings would expect according to the prospects of our world. His weapon is goodness. He revealed himself as a child, born in a stable. This is precisely how he counters with his power, completely different from the destructive powers of violence. In this very way he saves us. In this very way he shows us what saves.

In these days of Christmas, let us go to meet him full of trust, like the shepherds, like the Wise Men of the East. Let us ask Mary to lead us to the Lord. Let us ask him himself to make his face shine upon us. Let us ask him also to defeat the violence in the world and to make us experience the power of his goodness. With these sentiments, I warmly impart to you all my Apostolic Blessing.

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El fondo del diseño simboliza a jóvenes de todo el mundo se unen para celebrar su fe junto al Papa, al pie de la Cruz, y forman la corona de la Virgen de la Almudena, patrona de Madrid.

En la corona, sigue diciendo el creativo, destaca la “M” de María, también inicial de Madrid, lugar del encuentro.

La Cruz, señal del cristiano, preside la cita del Papa con los jóvenes, que hacen visible con su testimonio el tema de la JMJ: “arraigados y edificados en Cristo, firmes en la fe”.

El camino rápido y seguro para llegar a Cristo es la Virgen María, Madre de Dios y de los hombres. Los jóvenes tienen, en la fe de María, el ejemplo y el modelo para llegar a Cristo y cumplir la finalidad prioritaria de la JMJ: dar a conocer al mundo su mensaje.

Sobre la forma, el símbolo posee un trazo espontáneo y firme, como la juventud del siglo XXI. Es cercano, afable, abierto. Alegre, desenfadado y positivo.

El uso de una paleta de colores cálidos (rojo, naranja y amarillo) transmite una calidez y un calor inconfundibles, señas de identidad de una ciudad como Madrid, de un país como España. Estos colores son reflejo también de la ‘calidez divina’, del Amor trinitario.

José Gil-Nogués (diseñador del logo)

To read the explanation of the logo – Pour lire l’explication du logo – Per leggere la spiegazione del logo – Para ler a explicação do logotipo:   Madrid 2011 – Logo explanation

Deacon Les

I’d like to share with you what was for me, unexpectedly, an amazing and wonderful experience at World Youth Day in Sydney in July. An experience that I was privileged to share with seven remarkable young people from our parish; each one of them an extraordinary blessing in my life.

When the Genesis group originally asked me towards the end of last year to join them at WYD as their spiritual leader, I happily agreed without giving it much thought. However, as this year progressed, a trip to Sydney in July started looking more and more like a nightmare – perhaps even impossible. I submitted my application for an Australian visa somewhat reluctantly and with little supporting documentation. The following day I was asked by the visa office for proof of accommodation in Sydney and proof that I had sufficient funds to cover my costs. I replied that I was a pilgrim and travelled in faith. 24 hours later my passport was returned to me – with a visa for unrestricted entry to Australia valid for 12 months. My travel agent was stunned (as I was) and I stopped nagging the Holy Spirit for guidance or affirmation.

I arrived in Sydney a day later than our group and we came together for the first time in Sydney at St Mary’s cathedral for Sunday night Mass in the week preceding the beginning of WYD. The cathedral was packed with pilgrims that evening and we were happy to be there and happy to be together. I sensed then already that we were in for a week overflowing with God’s grace.

The following day we went back to the cathedral after lunch and sat outside on the lawn in the park; sharing, reflecting and praying before spending some quiet time alone with the Blessed Sacrament in the crypt. These times of sharing and prayer together became precious milestones on our pilgrimage through the week.  

WYD started officially on the Tuesday with the opening Mass in the late afternoon in an area called Barangaroo that forms part of the harbour, close to the Sydney opera house. Walking to Barangaroo that afternoon was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before; thousands upon thousands of people, shoulder to shoulder waving national flags and pilgrim banners; singing, laughing, hugging, excited and filled with joy. It was a little like the large crowds one sees at big sporting events – the difference here being that though we were from very many different countries, we all supported the same team; catholic in every sense of the word.   

The words of welcome from the PM of Australia, Kevin Rudd were not those one is accustomed to hearing from a politician.

He said:

“You are here for this great celebration of life, this great celebration of faith and this great celebration of hope. And for this you are so much the light of the world at a time when the world has so much darkness. Too often in the history of the world when young people travel in great numbers to other parts of the world, they do so in the cause of war. But you here today are here as pilgrims of peace. Some say only that which they see wrong in Christianity and in the church, I say let us speak also about what is right in Christianity and the church. And I say this, that Christianity has been an overwhelming force for good in the world.”

Sydney underwent an amazing transformation of spirit in the week we were there. In the days leading up to the start of WYD the press and other media and even people who approached us in the street were largely critical and sceptical of the whole event and resented the disruption and inconvenience that it was going to cause them. The media also didn’t miss an opportunity to regurgitate past scandals involving the clergy. By the Wednesday already however the press, TV and radio were talking well about WYD – and by the weekend, they were proclaiming their city greatly blessed. This wasn’t because the Pope was in town. This was the effect that the thousands of young people had on the city – generously sharing their joy, love, zeal and happiness on the trains, the buses, in the shops, the restaurants and on the streets. The gifts of the Holy Spirit evident, tangible and contagious.

The opening Mass was awesome and we came away feeling deeply enriched and blessed. We had had a profound experience of God’s kingdom; the ruling of God in our hearts. Pope Benedict says in his encyclical ‘Spe Salvi’:  “His kingdom is not an imaginary hereafter, situated in a future that will never arrive; his Kingdom is present wherever he is loved and wherever his love reaches us”. Experiencing that love makes it impossible not to love.  

In his homily, Cardinal Pell, the archbishop of Sydney urged us to be open to the power of the Holy Spirit.

“The call of the one true God remains mysterious” he said “especially today when many good people find it hard to believe. Our task is to be open to the power of the Spirit, to allow the God of surprises to act through us. Whatever our situation we must pray for an openness of heart, for a willingness to take the next step, even if we are fearful of venturing too much further. If we take God’s hand, He will do the rest. Trust is the key.”

Our routine for the rest of the week was catechesis in the morning in a parish with a visiting bishop followed by Mass and lunch and then a gathering of pilgrims in the afternoons for large events like the arrival of the Holy Father on Thursday and a live enactment of the Stations of the Cross on the Friday afternoon. The Stations started at St Mary’s cathedral and moved through the city finishing with the crucifixion outside the Sydney Opera House with the setting winter sun as a backdrop. Tens of thousands of pilgrims followed the Stations on huge screens located in parks and public areas in different parts of the city and millions throughout Australia watched the live broadcast on television.

The sacrament of reconciliation was available throughout each day and often well into the night in numerous locations in the city parks, parishes and even the convention centre.

The arrival of Pope Benedict on the Thursday afternoon was another joy-filled celebration for the 150,000 pilgrims gathered at Barangaroo.

In his opening address to the pilgrims, Pope Benedict spoke of the great difficulties that the youth have in making moral choices in a confused world; in finding the goodness, truth and beauty in a world obsessed with consumerism and subjective experience. He also addressed the issue of violence and sexual degradation promoted through television and the internet. He said: “I ask myself, could anyone standing face to face with people who actually do suffer violence and sexual exploitation “explain” that these tragedies, portrayed in virtual form, are considered merely “entertainment”?

He concluded: “Our hearts and minds are yearning for a vision of life where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and where identity is found in respectful communion. This is the work of the Holy Spirit! It is to bear witness to this reality that you were created. Let this be the message that you bring from Sydney to the world!”

After the Holy Father had spoken to us he was taken through the city. It was estimated that over 500,000 people turned out to welcome him to Sydney that day.

On the Friday night we went different ways. Agnes and Nicole had tickets for a WYD performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at the Opera house, Greg and Claudine had gone down with a bug and Dr Agnes had confined them to bed, Caroline and Shaun opted to escape the icy wind and have an early night and Tim and I went to an outdoor concert of contemporary gospel music. The concert was free and open to everyone – not just pilgrims – and there were large numbers of people there watching the concert on huge video screens. As the concert was drawing to a close at about nine thirty, the altar on the stage was set up for Benediction. Well when the Blessed Sacrament was carried-in in solemn procession, the pilgrims dropped to their knees spontaneously and many of those who were there only for the music did the same. We prayed and sang together gently; conscious of the vivid presence of the Holy Spirit.  A most memorable evening. 

On the Saturday morning, starting from 5.30am about 180,000 pilgrims gathered at North Sydney Station for the pilgrimage walk across the Sydney Harbor Bridge and through the city to Randwick Racecourse where we spent the rest of that day and the night under the stars in preparation for the WYD Mass with Pope Benedict on Sunday morning. Our group set off at about 9.30 that morning and the 9km walk took us just over three hours; stopping along the way to pray on the bridge and in the streets of the city. I think it’s astonishing that all traffic in and out of Sydney that day was diverted and the city was given over completely to the WYD pilgrims.  

That evening the racecourse was transformed into an open-air, candle-lit cathedral under the Southern Cross.

The full front page in the Sydney Sunday newspaper the next day featured an aerial photograph of the pilgrims covering the racecourse under the headline “Holy Night.”

The evening vigil with Pope Benedict started at seven and finished at about nine with Benediction. His message to the youth that night was especially beautiful.

He used a quotation from St Augustine to talk about the gift of God’s love in the Holy Spirit.

He said: “The Holy Spirit makes us remain in God and God in us; yet it is love that effects this. The Spirit therefore is God as love!”  God shares himself as love in the Holy Spirit. Love is the sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit!

“Dear young people, we have seen that it is the Holy Spirit who brings about this wonderful communion of believers in Jesus Christ. He is even now working through you. Let unifying love be your measure; abiding love your challenge; self-giving love your mission!

“I echo to you the words spoken by Blessed Mary MacKillop when she was just twenty six years old: “Believe in the whisperings of God to your heart!”. Believe in him! Believe in the power of the Spirit of Love!”

Tents were positioned all around the perimeter of the racecourse and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Confession continued throughout the night.

As the sun rose that chilly Sunday morn we said Morning Prayer together and then prepared for the arrival of the Holy Father and the WYD Mass. People streamed into the arena by their thousands and by 9am close on 500,000 people were gathered for the final Mass.

In his homily, Pope Benedict highlighted the importance for hope to be revived, and especially for the youth to be Christ’s witnesses.

“What will you leave to the next generation?” he asked. “How are you using the gifts you have been given, the ‘power’ which the Holy Spirit is even now prepared to release within you?  What legacy will you leave to young people yet to come?  What difference will you make?”

The Holy Father’s final words addressed to the pilgrims are equally addressed to each of us here at this moment:

 “Do not be afraid to say “yes” to Jesus, to find your joy in doing his will, giving yourself completely to the pursuit of holiness, and using all your talents in the service of others!”

“In Sydney we have had a vivid experience of the Spirit’s presence and power in the life of the Church.  We have seen the Church for what she truly is: the Body of Christ, a living community of love, embracing people of every race, nation and tongue, in the unity born of our faith in the Risen Lord.”

I believe we each have come away from WYD deeply enriched and forever changed.

Next month, the International Olympic Committee will decide whether the 2016 Olympic Games will be held in Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, or Tokyo. The Windy City’s Olympic bid is believed by many to have a good chance of succeeding, although others predict Rio will get the nod in order to bring the Games to South America for the first time.

Supporters of Chicago’s bid (the most ardent among them being Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley) say the Games will provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase the city to the world, increase tourism, and promote economic development.

Those who don’t want the Games, however, argue that it will burden the city and the entire state of Illinois with years of additional taxes and debt, displace poor and vulnerable people from their homes and places of employment, leave behind crumbling “white elephant” venues, and promote exactly the kind of pay-to-play corruption that has made Chicago and Illinois infamous.

Whatever the outcome of the Olympic bid (which we will know on Oct. 2, when the IOC meets in Copenhagen), the competition for the Games has gotten me to thinking about another world-class event that has been proven to have lasting positive effects on the communities and countries that host it: World Youth Day.

The massive biennial or triennial gatherings of Catholic young adults, created by Pope John Paul II and continued under Pope Benedict XVI, draw hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of participants to the host cities/dioceses. The concluding Mass of the 1995 WYD in Manila, which drew an estimated 4 million people, is believed to be the largest gathering of any kind in recorded history.

The first and so far only WYD ever held in the United States was in Denver in 1993. I attended the Denver gathering myself, and it was truly a life changing experience — not just because of the prescence of the pope but also because of the opportunity to experience the catholicity (with a small “c”) of the Church. Walking through the streets of Denver or on the trail to Cherry Creek State Park (site of the concluding Mass) alongside thousands of other young people all speaking different languages, trading pins and other souvenirs with them (a WYD tradition), watching a rainbow appear above Mile High Stadium just after the pope arrived, praying the rosary on the 15-hour bus ride home — all of these are cherished memories of mine.

Although WYD events themselves only last for a week or less, they often leave indelible marks on the souls of the individuals that participate. Colleen Carroll Campbell noted in the Aug. 24, 2005, edition of National Review Online that more than one-fourth of the new U.S. priests ordained in 2005 had attended a World Youth Day, and many laity cited it as a turning point in their faith life.

“‘Denver’ has become the first word in many conversion stories told by young American Catholics, who frequently cite the 1993 World Youth Day Mass at Cherry Creek State Park, where they celebrated their faith with the pope and half a million peers, as the first step toward radical life changes,” Campbell wrote. “Some gave up the obsessive quest for pleasure that had led them into promiscuity and rabid consumerism. Others discovered a passion for pro-life activism or service to the poor. Many returned to the sacraments.”

Meanwhile, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput (whose predecessor, Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, presided over the ‘93 event) described some of the lasting effects of WYD on his archdiocese as of 2002:

Reporters sometimes ask me what World Youth Day “does” for a diocese. More specifically, what did it “do” for Denver in 1993? After all, people arrive, they celebrate – and then they leave. Emotional highs never last, including religious ones. Even Peter, James and John had to go back down the mountain to work after the Transfiguration. And so the skeptics turn to statistics: baptisms, Mass attendance, contributions, vocations. Do they go up after World Youth Day? Down? By how much, and for how long? And so on. You get the idea….

With World Youth Day, numbers never tell the story. Outsiders tend to think of these gatherings as a fireworks display – a few days of very entertaining light that quickly fades to black when the noise stops. That’s exactly the wrong image. World Youth Day is a seed, and like a seed, it doesn’t grow overnight. It takes time. But if the soil is good, so is the harvest.

In the months after World Youth Day 1993, no miraculous surge in faith occurred here in Denver – at least not in way that garnered many headlines. But looking back nine years later, the Church in northern Colorado is dramatically different. God’s done extraordinary things in the lives of our people, and the evidence is all around us in our parishes, our schools, and in our seminaries, which are literally running out of room for candidates.

I said “seminaries,” not seminary, for a reason. We have two seminaries for the Archdiocese of Denver, and both are very much part of the renewal that began here after World Youth Day….

Over the past nine years…  many wonderful renewal communities and movements have found a home or deepened their presence in Denver — the Christian Life Movement, the Community of the Beatitudes, the Marian Community of Reconciliation, along with Cursillo, the charismatic renewal, Focolare, Communion and Liberation, and others. All of them root themselves in Vatican II. All of them have helped the faith flourish here in the Rockies. And all of them, for our local Church, are part of the legacy of World Youth Day.

Even the most notorious liturgical gaffe of the Denver gathering — the choice of a woman to play Christ in a dramatization of the Way of the Cross — had lasting effects which many readers of this blog would probably consider to have been for the better overall. According to Raymond Arroyo’s biography of Mother Angelica, that event prompted Mother to proclaim that she was “tired of (the) liberal Church in America”, return her community to its pre-Vatican II style of habit, and place greater emphasis on orthodox teaching and traditional forms of liturgy and devotion in the programming carried on her Eternal Word Television Network.

Olympic bid supporters in Chicago like to point to the possibilities for urban renewal and economic expansion that such an event may bring with it. Considering that, according to a just released survey, two-thirds of Catholics in the Chicago Archdiocese no longer attend Mass regularly, I would say the Archdiocese urgently needs spiritual renewal as well. The same is probably true of many sees in the U.S. For that reason, the world-class event I would most like to see brought to Chicago, or for that matter anywhere in the U.S., is World Youth Day.

The logo for the next World Youth Day has been unveiled.

An explanation of the logo is here, and the official Jornada Mundial de la Juventud website is here.  I’m really hoping to be able to go to – I went to Weltjugendtag 2005 in Köln with my brother and my dad, and it was incredible.

To see that many young people from literally everywhere in the world all gather together to celebrate our beautiful faith was just a tremendous experience – there were literally one million people at the final Mass, which was celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in his own country at his first World Youth Day as Pope.  One million people in one place, though, is just an unfathomable number of people.  Once we had gotten to the field that had been prepared for this Mass, the Marienfeld, as it was called (the idea was that everyone would make a bit of a pilgrimage to this field, then camp out there overnight – we didn’t realize the bit about the camping until we were there, which resulted in us spending the night using our rain tarps as blankets), there were people as far as I could see in every direction except towards the huge mound that had been built for the altar.  None of the pictures we have do justice to the vast number of people that were there, but here are a few from that pilgrimage/closing Mass.

My brother, then 13, and my 15-year-old self taking a quick break from our many-mile walk in a small German town

Walking through the German countryside, on our way to the Marienfeld

Jon just couldn't help himself. Yes, "zigaretten" is German for "cigarettes."

Getting closer...

A lot of groups carried their country's flag while marching

Almost there! That's the altar in the background, top left of the picture.

Tired, but excited.

Pope Benedict! (gold chasuble and miter)

I hadn’t looked at a lot of these pictures for too long.  Now I’m even more excited about Madrid.  If you’ve never been to World Youth Day, definitely look into it.  A truly amazing experience.

Having missed Canada day yesterday (but thanks to my dodgy computer calendar only realizing that after making ‘Happy Canada Day’ my facebook status I thought this would be a good time to write a post I’ve been meaning to write for ages!.

Those of you who know me, know that I have something of a love affair going on with Canada! I can’t get enough of the country. Before I start rambling, let me start at the beginning of it all!

I first visited Canada in July 2002 for the 17th Roman Catholic World Youth Day. This was an awesome 2 weeks. On the one hand, it marked the first major trip I’d ever taken outside the UK (apart form a day trip to Paris with my parents), it also marked my first time flying. I was there with a group from the Church of Scotland, 27 (I think) Protestant Pilgrims amongst 800,000 RC pilgrims. The CofS group was fantastic, unfortunately I don’t keep in touch with that many of the folks who were on the trip as often as I’d like to, but at the time of the trip some of the folk there were my closest friends: Yin Lee and Colin Hyslop.
Here’s a picture of the whole (I think) CofS group in RHPC:

CofS Pilgrims in RHPC

Colin, Rachel and I in Downsiew

Part of the crowd at Downsview

ROME, APRIL 3, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Those who work in youth ministry must throw off mediocrity and be filled with a “pastoral passion” to announce the message of Christ to young people, says Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko.

http://www.zenit.org/article-25568?l=english

Where it all started.

At last years World Youth Day a fake popemobile was used at a  No To Pope Coalition rally. More details on that and other activities can be found at WorldTruthDay.org

Ian is returning to court this week to combat the charges of “having a roof ornament likely to distract motorists”.

He’s being defended by the NSW Council for Civil Liberties.

You can still visit WorldTruthDay.org or SydneyAtheists to get more information and discuss freethought activities in Sydney .

Já tem quase uma semana q eu fiz a primeira (espero que de muitas) visita ao Pontifício Conselho para os Leigos (PCL) aqui em Roma. A pensão em que estou hospedado é dirigida por um senhor que trabalha lá.

Fiquei com raiva de não ter levado minha câmera. O primeiro andar do prédio é todo dedicado à Cáritas International, associação iniciada na Alemanha de combate à pobreza e à injustiça social, que agora é vinculada ao Vaticano e presta serviço no mundo inteiro.

A primeira pessoas que conheci no PCL é o padre responsável por toda a questão de esportes no âmbito da Igreja. Foi a área dele que criou a “Copa do Mundo Sacerdotal”, uma competição de futebol entre seminaristas e padres de várias nacionalidades que estão em Roma. O Brasil não está na frente, infelizmente… =/

Depois fui na sala do meu anfitrião. MUUUITO LEGAL! Ele é da área administração de todo PCL, em especial dos jovens. Então, tudo quanto é Jornada Mundial da Juventude é discutida lá também. Eu vi centenas de livros sobre as jornadas, fotos e muitas outras coisas que me deram raiva de não ter a câmera.

No final, ele me levou para conhecer o padre responsável pela organização, no Vaticano, das JMJs. A minha surpresa é que ele já me conhecia! Quer dizer, indiretamente, graças ao site www.jmjbrasil.com.br . Ele já sabia do nosso trabalho em tentar divulgar um pouco mais a espiritualidade de comunhão das JMJs para os jovens brasileiros e disse que gostava do site.

Caramba, aquilo me deixou muito feliz! Imagina a responsabilidade. Graças à boa vontade de uma pessoa mto gente boa e meu amigo, o site nasceu. Com a ajuda de outras pessoas ele cresceu um pouco. Agora, o responsável no Vaticano pelo que estamos tentando divulgar gostou da iniciativa e apóia o trabalho. Poxa, muito legal!

Isso só dá mais gás para continuar com o trabalho!

Last April 5, at the Palm Sunday celebrations in St. Peter’s Square, the World Youth Day cross and icon were handed on by the young people from Sydney to the youth of Madrid. 

With the enormous resources that the World Youth Days entail, is it worth it?   Card. George Pell once mentioned that the World Youth Day has brought springtime to the Australian Church.  But a better compliment comes from a non-Catholic police commissioner of Sydney who said “The World Youth Day has restored the faith of my policemen in young people”.

Go to this link to see the whole article: http://www.cgfmanet.org/Spazio_giovani/mostraDocumenti.asp?Lingua=1&sez=6&sotSez=3&detSotSez=1&Doc=50

Zum morgigen Weltjugendtag in Berlin-Kreuzberg werden bis zu 500 Jugendliche aus dem ganzen Bistum Berlin erwartet. Wie in jedem Jahr lädt der Hl. Vater Papst Benedikt XVI. die Jugendlichen der Welt ein, am Palmsonntagswochenende sich zu versammeln und ein Fest des Glaubens zu feiern. In diesem Jahr haben die Verantwortlichen nicht an der intensiven Vorbereitung des Treffens gespart.
Der Tag beginnt um 10.30 Uhr mit einer Heiligen Messe mit Weihbischof Weider. Nach dem Mittag geht es weiter mit kreativen, inspirierenden Workshops; es wird einen Markt der spirituellen Möglichkeiten geben; ein Weltcafé mit internationalen Snacks; eine Prozession durch die Straßen von Berlin und schließlich ein Gospelkonzert.
Wer von Zehlendorf aus mit Kaplan Faustmann zum Weltjugendtag fahren möchte, trifft sich am morgigen Samstag um 10 Uhr am S-Bhf. Zehlendorf.

Yesterday’s homily made me realize that 14 years is not long enough to forget the song lyrics that I knew by heart. It also made me reminisce of those moments when everything seemed surreal, as if the real world is still out of reach.  This song as well as the World Youth Day of 1995 etched something in me that I would forever hold dear in my heart. Hearing the priest’s homily made me rethink of what unconditional love offers and what it takes for that love to flourish.

It’s not what we give that measures the kind of love that we offer, rather what we are willing to give up.

Today on Horiwood.Com it has been a case of the Twilighters Vs The Tributes (to, actress Natasha Richardson who devastatingly passed away last week). Only 2 votes separate spots 1 and 2 tonight. But…

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson rise like vampires to take the top spot, signalling a new emerging power duo of actors in Hollywood. Model Amber Rose, gives Kanye West and hip hop, the lightning that’s needed to cut through and get press. She’s a doll. Finally, author, Robert Ellis, with his inspiring young romance novel, Courage To Love and New Zealand’s Lake Taupo, one of the best scenic lake destinations in the world, round out our most sought after, Top 10 tonight.

We also offer our condolences to Jade Goody’s family and the nation of Britain, at Jade’s passing to cervical cancer. Goody was much loved for the courage she always so richly displayed in her life. Like Natasha Richardson, Jade Goody will be greatly missed. Two high profile British mothers and female entertainers, both taken too early, in the same week. The world mourns the UK’s double loss. Though irreplaceable, who will rise to  entertain in the fun shoes they both left behind?

Today, was the second highest viewing day ever on Horiwood.Com (yesterday’s previous record was smashed) and viewer numbers are  still rising as I write. Thank you all, being the reason to write anything each day. lol! Horiwood.Com is about You, so as long as You read it, I’ll keep creating it for You! Have a great evening! Happy Reading. Love & Peace ya’ll

HORIWOOD’S  TOP 10 POSTS TODAY ARE:

1. KRISTEN STEWART & ROBERT PATTINSON -ARE THEY BACK ON? LOVERS OR BIZ PARTNERS, OR BOTH?

2. LIAM NEESON CELEBRATES NATASHA RICHARDSON’S LIFE WITH FAMILY & FRIENDS AT IRISH WAKE

3. HORIWOOD’S 40 TOP POSTS FOR FEB/MARCH 09

4. OPERA EGO – KANYE WEST & AMBER ROSE

5. ALL EYES OF THE WORLD ON – LIAM NEESON AND SONS

6. EVER BEEN TO LAKE TAUPO?

7. AMBER ROSE- HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE HER

8. WORLD YOUTH DAY SONG FOR LIAM NEESON AND SONS BY GUY SEBASTIAN & PAULINI

9. LIAM NEESON – COURAGE TO LOVE YOUR SONS

10. PATTINSON & STEWART: LIFE IN A PHOTOBOOTH PIC!