Honolulu seminarian Larry Denis III, left, and his godson, Isaac Santos with World Youth Day pilgrims they met during the Vigil, Aug. 5, before the closing Mass with Pope Francis the next day, in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo courtesy of Larry Denis III)
By Larry Denis III
Special to the Herald
Following a nice lunch at an authentic Portuguese restaurant in Lisbon to celebrate Bishop Larry Silva’s birthday, we began our pilgrimage to the World Youth Day Vigil site, Aug. 5, for the final night before the festival’s closing Mass the following morning with Pope Francis. This was all part of the WYD experience. Roads and freeways were shut down for the 1.5 million pilgrims making the trek in very hot weather! It was 99 degrees that afternoon. While some pilgrims had to walk four to six hours or more, we were blessed with only a two-and-a-half-hour walk. We took water and were supposed to pick up a food kit with meals through lunch on Sunday. Unfortunately, none of the 25 food stations spread throughout Lisbon was on our route. Thankfully, we had a huge lunch.
Once at the vigil site, we had to find our section — B8. The campsites had opened at 1:30 p.m. We got there around 4 p.m. to find it already pretty full. We found a spot in the rocky dirt and inflated our pool floaties so we could get comfortable. The sun was beaming down hard and didn’t set until about 8:30 p.m. Things cooled down a couple of hours later.
More and more pilgrims started to descend onto our campsite, including a group of 40 pilgrims from France who were determined to inch their way into a very tight part of our section. After some diplomatic negotiations among nations, everyone found a space. We enjoyed getting to know a handful of Opus Dei girls from Barcelona and shared with them some macadamia nuts and shell leis from Hawaii. (Those shell leis, which Big Island pastors Father Steve Macedo and Father Konelio Faletoi had given us to trade, were a HUGE hit!)
Pope Francis arrived, and although the stage was very, very far away, we could see everything on large screens nearby if we stood up. At 8:45 p.m., Adoration began. Unfortunately, our section was neither reverent nor prayerful. Those nearby were talking loudly, eating and drinking, and just not adoring the Lord as they should. My godson Isaac Santos, with whom I made the pilgrimage, was outside of the campsite looking for water (which he never found) so he just stayed outside and watched the Adoration on a large screen. He said that that campsite was reverent, with young people on their knees in adoration. Isaac said his adoration time was a special moment with Jesus, so that was a blessing for sure.
I tried my best to use our transistor radio and the EWTN app to listen to and watch the Adoration in English, and I followed along with a pilgrim guide I had the hotel print out. It just wasn’t as prayerful as I had hoped it to be, or like what I experienced in Panama at the last WYD. I was able to hear the pope’s main message though: “The only opportunity, the only time it is lawful to look down on someone is when we help someone get up!” What great advice.
Following Adoration, the campsite got even more crowded and there simply was not enough room for everyone. There were only four sections, and with 1.5 million people, that worked out to be more than 375,000 pilgrims per section. A concert followed the Adoration, and at about 11:30 p.m., Isaac and I decided things were getting too crazy in our area. I prayed on it, and we both decided to make our way out of the Vigil site. That was an adventure!
There were hundreds of pilgrims trying to get to the portable toilets in our section, and after lots of pushing and shoving (we were crammed in there like sardines), we made it to a ravine where we waited for the police to cut the fence down behind the latrines so we could make a way out since the walkways were so packed with people no one could move. Unfortunately, we were among thousands of disappointed pilgrims who were leaving the Vigil site.
Evacuation route
The freeway near the site had turned into another viewing spot, and an evacuation route for those leaving. We walked for over an hour to get to an area where the roads were open and we could catch a Bolt ride back to our hotel. That took a while since there were so many Bolt and Uber drivers trying to find their pilgrims. We didn’t get back to the hotel till after 1:30 a.m.
We watched the closing Mass and festivities at the hotel on Sunday morning. Although I wish we were able to be there in person to experience it, watching it at the hotel was a lot more prayerful than the previous night’s Adoration. The pope’s homily was beautiful. He told us not to be afraid, to have no fear, and to cheer up!
That afternoon, we did a little sightseeing and souvenir shopping where we ran into a group of U.S. pilgrims who felt relieved that they weren’t the only Americans who decided to leave the Vigil site. At least Isaac and I could stay until after Adoration. This group of pilgrims from the mid-West left a few hours after getting there, overwhelmed by the crowd size and heat. (If you watched the Vigil and closing Mass on EWTN, they did not show the more than a million pilgrims who were in the huge sections across of the river from the main stage.)
Overall, I had an amazing World Youth Day pilgrimage. We started off by going to Confession in the City of Joy, and that allowed us to be in the state of grace so that more blessings would flow, which did happen! Our pilgrimage was filled with many blessings — simple things like being in the right spot at the right time, shade from the hot sun, meeting amazing pilgrims, seeing the pope pass by, attending an incredible international XLT Adoration sponsored by Life Teen, attending Mass for the Vietnamese youth celebrated by Bishop Larry, the incredible and very moving Way of the Cross on Friday night, and just being in the presence of so many young people on fire for Jesus and his church.
My 23-year-old godson Isaac of St. Joseph Church in Hilo, said after the pilgrimage that he never felt so close to God as he does now. Hearing that warmed my heart, making the pilgrimage worth every last penny. The young people’s joy and love for our church gives me hope for our church’s future. I will forever remember this experience, and it is my hope and prayer that more people from our Diocese will join us in Seoul, South Korea, in 2027 for the next World Youth Day.
Larry Denis III is a seminarian for the Diocese of Honolulu studying at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California.
