Youths prepare for �truly life-changing experience� at WYD 2016

By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | Hundreds of South Florida teens, young adults and their chaperones are in full preparation mode for the latest chapter of World Youth Day, the international Catholic gathering of young people.

Fittingly, Poland and its historic city of Krakow are playing host in 2016 to the widely-attended youth event that Poland’s native son, Pope St. John Paul II, initiated as a Vatican-sponsored tradition in the late 1980s.

For the second time in his papacy, Pope Francis will preside over a WYD gathering, set for July 26-31 in the southern Polish city. The last WYD event took place the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, just a few months after Pope Francis’ election.

“I think he is by far a great example of humility and love and a Christ-like figure,” said Mark Gomez, 20, a member of Immaculate Conception Parish in Hialeah and leader of Encuentros Juveniles, a Miami lay organization for youths and young adults that will be just one of many local entities taking members to Poland.

Gomez, who saw Pope Francis up close last year during the U.S. papal visit to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families, plans to attend WYD in Poland with his parents and two brothers, all of whom will experience the event together for the first time.

The Encuentros Juveniles group of 16 pilgrims to Krakow will be accompanied by a local priest chaplain and will join with a larger archdiocesan delegation of 150 other youths and young adults, led by Archbishop Thomas Wenski.

“Pope Francis knows the church has a need, and in a time when you see broken families, drugs, crime � the world needs to know there is something more,” said Gomez, who studies politics and international studies at the University of Miami.

Overall, the American contingent to WYD is expected to exceed 30,000 registered pilgrims. Around 2.5 million or more are expected to attend the closing events with Pope Francis.

Some past editions of WYD have attracted in excess of 4 million people at the vigil and closing Mass. Those are usually set outdoors on a Sunday morning following a week of large and small events organized into major language groups. 

Other WYD events including a welcoming ceremony, a Friday Stations of the Cross with the pope, catechesis, devotions and reconciliation activities, and myriad smaller activities including everything from tourism to cultural exhibitions to Christian music concerts.

In addition to attending the official WYD events in Krakow, the Miami archdiocesan delegation is traveling over a period of 12 days with Archbishop Wenski. They will make stops in Vienna; Czestochowa, home of the famous icon of the Black Madonna; Auschwitz and historical sites related to the Holocaust; and to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Poland.

They will also explore points of interest in the life of Pope St. John Paul II and St. Maria Faustyna Kowalska, the Polish-born religious associated with the Divine Mercy devotion.

The Miami group is composed of young people from throughout the archdiocese including groups fromSt. Thomas Aquinas High School, Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy High School, St. Ann Mission in Homestead, and a Spanish-language group affiliated with the Miami-based Southeast Pastoral Institute (SEPI), along with a local chapter of the Neocatechumenal Way, a global organization.

The official WYD events are Tuesday through Sunday of the last week of July and will include large English-language catechesis activities led by several U.S. cardinals and bishops. Other catechetical and special events are planned for Spanish-speaking and other language groups from around the world.

“Anyone who has been to one says it is truly a life-changing experience,” said Rosemarie Banich, archdiocesan director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry who is overseeing the WYD pilgrimage from Miami.

“Aside from the fact that WYD allows you to feel fraternity with millions of other Catholics and to feel that international global community that our Church is, there are so many opportunities for a personal experience of Jesus,” Banich said.

She added that a renewed emphasis on youth and young adult outreach was a high priority that came out of the archdiocesan synod process several years ago.

“Even though it seems like a complicated itinerary, everything we do at WYD is meant to foster an encounter with Christ and the hope is that it creates a transformation that continues to grow back here in our local church,” she said.

“There is something about pilgrimage and taking you out of your local environment that helps prepare that canvas for that experience. Pilgrimage in general is such a strong tradition in our faith.”

The popular appeal of Pope Francis and his Year of Mercy project for 2016 adds a whole new level to WYD, Banich added. His message of mercy and love resonates with youth and young people, and is reflected in the overall WYD theme, which is “Blessed Are the Merciful.”

A local veteran of World Youth Day events, Laura Lopez, who works on evangelization programs at SEPI, noted that her agency is taking some 30 South Florida pilgrims to Poland under the direction of SEPI’s executive director, Father Rafael Capo.

As with their experience of WYD Rio in 2013, the SEPI pilgrims are dedicated to bringing the WYD experience back to Catholic youths in the wider U.S. Southeast region � including those who are unable to attend the international gathering.

“The goal with this pilgrimage includes coming back as missionary disciples here, so that we can transmit that encounter of our faith to those around us,” Lopez said.

She noted that the U.S. bishops have made a strong push to develop resources for groups getting ready to travel to WYD as well as for those who stay home.

“All youths and young adults can be pilgrims in this WYD experience no matter where they are,” Lopez said. “Young people not able to physically travel can also be a part of this international encounter with Christ.”

Before they leave for Poland, the SEPI group will have a weekend retreat as a final preparation for WYD. Once they return, they will take part in a special post-WYD missionary project in the Miami archdiocese and the U.S. Southeast region.

“And for the first time, U.S. pilgrims have our own logo,” Lopez said.

For more information see: www.wydusa.org.