Sister Alexia Zaldivar, of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who serves as committee chair of the Pastoral Juvenil Hispana (Hispanic Young Adult Ministry) for the Miami Archdiocese, poses with the Nicaraguan flag and local pilgrim Shalom Zambrano, wearing the Colombian flag, during one of the weeklong series of parallel World Youth Day 2023 events held to mirror those underway in Lisbon, Portugal, Aug. 1-6.
HOMESTEAD | There were
games, sports, eucharistic adoration, a sacrament of reconciliation station,
outdoor Masses, an hours-long walking pilgrimage in sweltering heat and a late-night
concert featuring praise and worship bands during an overnight vigil.
All regular hallmarks of
a World Youth Day event, typically held in summer at a moveable location since
its inception in the 1980s, when Pope St. John Paul II launched the WYD concept
challenging Catholic youths to deepen their faith.
Not to be outdone by
their compatriots gathering simultaneously in Lisbon, Portugal, for the
official WYD 2023 international gathering, some 200 South Florida teens and
young adults added a surprise fireworks display to their own domestic edition
of the Catholic youth festival.
Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC
Brother Iñigo John Paul, a member of the Miami-based Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary religious community, leads prayers during a three-mile pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Schoenstatt in Homestead, Aug. 5, 2023, during one of the World Youth Day Miami activities mirroring the events underway in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Miami-based Servants
of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a religious community of men and women,
joined the Pastoral Juvenil Hispana (Hispanic Young Adult Ministry) to sponsor
the weeklong WYD Miami festival. Staged at parishes throughout the region, WYD
Miami culminated in a weekend finale at a sprawling retreat space the Pierced
Hearts maintain in Homestead, called the Land of the Pierced Hearts.
Father and son Hernan and
Miguel Villacis of Miami Beach were busy setting up their tents in the
makeshift family camping section of the festival sleepover as they reflected on
what brought them to the event.
Members of St. Lawrence
Parish in North Miami Beach, the Villacis are involved in music ministry and
family prayer. Miguel, 14, attends a weekly vocations discernment prayer group
hosted by the Pierced Hearts at their Miami center. The Villacis said they
would have enjoyed being in Portugal and seeing the Shrine of Our Lady of
Fatima as a side trip to WYD, but the local edition was a better fit this year.
Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC
A young adult participant in World Youth Day Miami prays during a three-mile pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Schoenstatt in Homestead, Aug. 5, 2023.
“What’s amazing is that I
am with the religious community that educated me a lot,” Miguel said, “and to
be honest I think this is going to be much more exciting than Portugal. I feel
I am going to be closer to the religious community and with my friends and it
won't be that huge crowd with the pope.”
“I am looking forward to
the procession and eucharistic adoration,” Miguel added.
His father, Hernan, said
it was a blessing to mingle with different groups and individuals throughout
the weeklong series of events: “the whole week featuring with different
parishes, different ways of praying, getting know people and getting to know
God and the Virgin Mary. Everybody is coming forward, praying together.”
On Aug. 5, the Saturday
of the overnight vigil, the teens, young adults, chaperones and parents joined
the religious and clergy for a three-mile walking pilgrimage to the Shrine of
Our Lady of Schoenstatt in Homestead. They sang and prayed along rural
Homestead backstreets under a brutally hot and humid late August afternoon.
Schoenstatt, with its
rustic chapel, family center and gift shop, is a local outgrowth of the
Schoenstatt Marian movement founded in Germany in 1914. It was among the first
of the lay communities that emerged in the 20th century in the Catholic
Church. The Schoenstatt movement in Miami offers Spanish-language groups
for married couples, women, mothers, children and youths. Casa Schoenstatt also
hosts weekly rosaries, Mass, and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on Saturday
mornings.
Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC
Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary join 200 youth and young adults from the South Florida region’s Catholic Hispanic community in a three-mile pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Schoenstatt in Homestead, Aug. 5, 2023, paralleling the events of World Youth Day Lisbon 2023.
The walking Marian pilgrimage
to the chapel at Schoenstatt mirrored the long walk that WYD pilgrims
traditionally make from their places of lodging to the location of the WYD
outdoor vigil and closing Mass with the pope, often with well over one million
in attendance.
Pope Francis hosted the
WYD Lisbon event Aug. 1-6 following a one-year postponement due to the
pandemic. Panama City hosted the last WYD in January 2019. The four-year
gap is the longest between the global celebrations in the history of the event.
The target age for WYD is generally 18 to 35, not including chaperones and
adult leaders.
“We always want to make
sure our teens and youth have this opportunity even though they may not have
the monetary means” to travel to Panama or Lisbon, said Judith Montalvan, a
member of St. Joseph Parish in Miami Beach who serves as lay coordinator of the
archdiocesan pastoral council for the Pastoral Juvenil Hispana.
“We created the same
environment that you find at WYD here in Miami,” she added, noting that
social media platforms were an effective way to reach local families but that
still more are welcome at future events.
The fun activities like
volleyball and frisbee games, eucharistic adoration and the live video
simulcast of Pope Francis’ WYD messages from Lisbon are among the reasons to participate
in the local event, Montalvan said.
“I would say to families
and parents of teens: Create the opportunity, the moments and experiences to
open up and bring them out here for a life changing experience they will have
in their hearts and memories for the rest of their lives,” she added.
Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC
Local pilgrim Shalom Zambrano, left, takes a selfie Aug. 5, with a fellow participant at World Youth Day Miami, a weeklong series of events paralleling those at WYD Lisbon 2023.
On hand for the weekend
and clearly beaming the WYD joy was young adult Shalom Zambrano, a member of
the Pastoral Juvenil Hispana who is also close to the Pierced Hearts community.
She said she has never been to WYD and would like to have gone to Lisbon.
“I always wanted to be at
one so this is the next best thing,” Zambrano said. “We feel part of a family
here, that we are not alone and that there is someone next to us who could not
go to Lisbon but we can make this event here,” she said. “I have made many new
friends. My goal here is to get closer to Jesus and know his will for my life.”
Another clearly joyful
member of the gathering was Maria Laura Restrepo, a member of St. Dominic
Parish in Miami and a recent graduate of Johns Hopkins University now studying
to be a physician's assistant. She is also part of a lay branch of the Pierced
Hearts community.
The WYD Miami event is
built on the premise, she said, that teens and young adults have their own
place in the church.
“I am excited to see a
lot of youth here and to learn more about the faith and knowing that they are
not alone and they are not the only ones walking on this journey towards their
faith and to discern God’s will for them,” Restrepo said.
“Catholic youth is fun
and is not something to be scared or timid about,” she added. “You won't be the
only one who is down for going to eucharistic adoration and who wants to go
volunteer alongside sisters and brothers.”
Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC
Participants in World Youth Day Miami pose with the Colombian and Venezuelan flags before starting out on a three-mile pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Schoenstatt in Homestead, Aug. 5, 2023.