A digital clock on St. Mary’s Basilica in Krakow’s Main Square counts down to the opening of World Youth Day. The city, once the royal capital of Poland, will host the international World Youth Day in July. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)
By Darlene J.M. Dela Cruz
Hawaii Catholic Herald
A handful of Island pilgrims will be traveling to Europe at the end of this month to join Pope Francis and millions of other Catholics from around the globe for an exciting time of faith-building, fellowship and prayer.
Bishop Larry Silva will be leading a diocesan pilgrimage group to World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, July 22 to Aug. 3. This contingent consists of two high school students and four adults.
According to Lisa Gomes, director of the diocesan Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, parishioners from Annunciation Church on the Big Island have organized their own World Youth Day pilgrimage. From the Waimea parish, three high school youth, four young adults and five adults — including pastor Father Stephen Macedo — are scheduled to visit Poland as well.
World Youth Day is actually not a daylong event but an intensive week of catechesis, sacraments, liturgies and international networking. St. John Paul II celebrated the first World Youth Day in 1986, an initiative he began to foster the faith of young people.
The term “youth” in the U.S. church often refers to Catholics age 18 and younger. Elsewhere around the world, “youth” also encompasses those in the “young adult” demographic, ages 19-39.
St. John Paul II encouraged bishops to celebrate a day for young people annually in their dioceses. The pontiff advocated that every two to three years, a major World Youth Day be organized in a different international city to get together the globe’s young Catholics.
This year’s World Youth Day in Krakow is centered on the theme “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” It coincides with the Jubilee Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis and pays homage to the Polish St. John Paul II, who promoted the Divine Mercy devotion and instituted Divine Mercy Sunday.
Gomes of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry said the pilgrimage group led by Bishop Silva will get a chance to explore various sites in Poland, among them the city of Wadowice, birthplace of St. John Paul II. There are plans as well to stop at the Monastery of Jasna Gora, historic Polish Catholic churches and the site of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp.
Pope Francis is scheduled to lead World Youth Day events in Krakow July 27-31, including an overnight vigil and liturgy expected to draw upwards of 2 million attendees.
As of early July, there were more than 30,000 pilgrims from the U.S. fully registered for World Youth Day. Another 10,000 were reported as partially registered.
For more information on World Youth Day, Krakow, visit http://www.catholichawaii.org/oyyam/yam/wyd or http://worldyouthday.com/krakow-2016 and http://www.krakow2016.com/en.
