Polish pilgrims in Rio de Janeiro cheer as Pope Francis announces that World Youth Day 2016 will take place in Krakow, Poland. The pope made the announcement at the conclusion of the closing Mass of World Youth Day on Copacabana beach July 28. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
World Youth Day is a little more than a year away. Will you be there?!
Local Catholics — youth, young adults and chaperones — are invited to travel with Bishop Larry Silva and the diocesan Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry to Krakow, Poland, July 22-Aug. 2, 2016. That’s where millions of faithful are expected to participate in a packed slate of World Youth Day activities, including Mass with the pope.
Lisa Gomes, director of the diocesan youth and young adult ministry office, describes World Youth Day as “an opportunity to experience the ‘catholic’ (universal) church.” She attended the most recent WYD events in Sydney, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.
Next year’s pilgrimage to Krakow, Gomes said, will be extra special. WYD will be held in the home country of St. John Paul II, the Polish pontiff who started the tradition for young Catholics.
World Youth “Day” actually is an intense, almost weeklong series of catechetical sessions, liturgies and international fellowship. In 2016, WYD activities will center on the theme “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
The line comes from Matthew 5:7, one of eight “Beatitudes” on humility and compassion delivered by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. WYD will be celebrated during the “Holy Year of Mercy,” which Pope Francis proclaimed to run from Dec. 8, 2015 until Nov. 20, 2016. The theme also fits with the Divine Mercy devotion inspired by St. Faustina Kowalska of Poland.
Faith Journeys, a travel company based in Arizona, has teamed up with the Diocese of Honolulu to offer a 12-day WYD pilgrimage.
The trip starts July 22 with a departure from Honolulu to New York City. A couple days of sightseeing are scheduled in the Big Apple, with stops at Times Square and St. Patrick Cathedral.
Pilgrims will then fly across the Atlantic Ocean and arrive in Warsaw, Poland, July 25. They will head to Krakow by motorcoach, visiting along the way sites such as the Basilica of the Holy Cross, the Monastery of Jasna Gora and the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy if time permits.
Catechesis and faith-building
World Youth Day opens with ceremonies and Mass the evening of July 26. Catechesis sessions and faith-building activities will fill the daytimes of July 27-29.
Pope Francis is slated to arrive in Krakow July 28. He will gather with pilgrims for Stations of the Cross July 29, and preside at an overnight vigil with Eucharistic adoration July 30. WYD culminates in a papal Mass concelebrated by thousands of bishops and priests July 31.
After WYD, pilgrims will get a chance to visit other sites in Poland, including the Auschwitz concentration camp, where St. Maximillian Kolbe, a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar, sacrificed his life to save a fellow prisoner. A brief tour is scheduled as well in St. John Paul II’s birthplace of Wadowice.
Pilgrims will fly back to Honolulu Aug. 2.
The WYD trip will cost $4,345 per person if a minimum of 40 pilgrims sign up. Those who want to arrange their own air travel can register for the land-only pilgrimage price of $2,200.
Both costs cover WYD registration and materials, shared rooms and some meals. Airline luggage fees and inter-island transportation to and from Honolulu are not included.
Makana Aiona, diocesan director of young adult ministry, encourages young local Catholics to go to World Youth Day in Krakow. Aiona attended WYD in Rio de Janeiro two years ago and was inspired by “the solidarity of the church.”
“Seeing millions of people walking the streets with their World Youth Day backpacks and T-shirts really is exciting because it shows you just how big our (Catholic) family is,” he said. “You experience the barriers of language and geography, then you experience the unifying power of the sacraments.”
“To truly understand what it means to be Catholic, you have to go on a pilgrimage like World Youth Day,” Aiona added.
First monetary deposits for the Krakow pilgrimage will be accepted June 1. For more information on the diocesan WYD package, visit http://www.catholichawaii.org/oyyam/yam/wyd.
More World Youth Day 2016 resources can be found at http://worldyouthday.com/krakow-2016 and http://www.krakow2016.com/en.
