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Worldwide display of Faith
400,000 youth converge on the land Down Under
By Ambria Hammel, ahammel@catholicsun.org
Aug. 7, 2008
SYDNEY, Australia — For two and a half hours, more than 200 teens and young adults from the Phoenix Diocese trudged across the city’s famous harbor bridge and through five miles of nearby streets.
Their destination? A Mass, which wasn’t scheduled to start for another 24 hours.
Some 180,000 other Catholics — all weighed down by hiking backpacks, jackets and sleeping bags — joined them. Throughout the morning and into the evening, the steady parade of people filing into Royal Randwick Racecourse for a vigil and Mass grew tighter and wider across city streets.
The events, led by Pope Benedict XVI, marked the final festivities of World Youth Day and young Catholics were eager to be a part of it.
“We’ve done some pretty decent walking,” Liz Gallivan said a good hour into the journey to Mass. Throughout her six-day stay in Sydney, the young adult from St. Timothy Parish logged 40 miles trekking to catechesis sessions, the Stations of the Cross, Mass, adoration and Catholic concerts.
Amongst the plethora of activities offered to World Youth Day pilgrims across 10 venues July 15-20, Gallivan said the July 19 evening vigil with the pope was the most memorable.
The two-hour candlelit vigil on a 2,000-meter racecourse featured liturgical dance, music, testimony, adoration and an address from the Holy Father.
Papal encounters
“I felt like there was no other sound other than the pope talking,” Gallivan said. She laid herself down in her sleeping bag and drowned out all other noises.
She said Pope Benedict’s message about the power of the Holy Spirit gave her a sense of peace and a need to trust in God. His address also defined her faith in a new way.
The pope identified “unity” as the Holy Spirit’s unique quality. Then he challenged the youth to let unifying love be their measure and self-giving love their mission.
The Holy Father also invited the youth to enrich themselves with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and believe in their power.
“You are called to exercise the Spirit’s gifts amidst the ups and downs of your daily life,” the pope said.
By Mass time the next morning, the young crowd swelled to 400,000 and overflowed into a nearby park. It marked the largest gathering in Sydney’s history.
All eyes focused on the altar — or the projection of it onto a jumbo screen the size of a semi-truck.
They watched the pontiff seal 24 youths with the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of confirmation.
“Empowered by the Spirit, and drawing upon faith’s rich vision, a new generation of Christians is being called to help build a world in which God’s gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished,” the pope said in his homily. “The Church especially needs the gifts of young people.”
Fr. Michael Reinhardt, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Glendale and one of four priests from the diocese who concelebrated Mass with the pope, found the pontiff’s analogy of the world being in a spiritual desert thought-provoking.
“The youth are the key to pulling us out of that,” Fr. Reinhardt said. He hopes the teens take heed of what they learned from their World Youth Day pilgrimage.
Many aren’t likely to soon forget their encounters with the global Church, including their brush with the pope himself. Arizona youth got two close glimpses of the pontiff: when he arrived for his opening address July 17 and in the popemobile before the final Mass July 20.
“We thought we’d be really far” for his arrival, “but we were right there when he got off the boat,” said Joel Bissen, a pilgrim from St. John Vianney Parish in Sedona.
Each registered pilgrim group received assigned areas for World Youth Day events.
“Everybody around here was screaming,” said Mary Elizabeth Zabilski, a St. Thomas the Apostle pilgrim.
OIivia Jana, from St. Timothy, felt like time stopped when she was face to face with the pope. She called it a “telling your grandkids” type of moment.
After a quick ride in his popemobile, the pontiff climbed the four-meter high sanctuary that backed up to the harbor to meet the youth. The young Catholics waved their country’s flag and shouted “Benedetto” while the Church’s supreme leader greeted them with raised arms.
“It was the ultimate human experience to see the most humble person on Earth,” said James Grandjean. The Sacred Heart pilgrim from Prescott estimated he was 500 feet away from the pope with few rows of people between them.
A few days later, many Arizona pilgrims had an unobstructed view of the Holy Father as his popemobile circled the racetrack just before the final Mass July 20.
Festivities continue
The rest of World Youth Day festivities featured a steady dose of catechesis, concerts — including three performances featuring Mesa-based musician Matt Maher — exhibits and places of pilgrimage around Sydney.
Pilgrims filled up city buses and trains to get there and drivers gladly took extra shifts to help out. The youth also relied on maps, temporary signs and 8,000 volunteers to show them the way.
For six straight days, Sydneysiders often heard energized groups of youth up until midnight singing praises on their way home from various concerts.
The Capella Sublima and Sydney Philharmonica choirs performed inside the Sydney Opera House July 14 where Arizona pilgrims filled up the first few rows.
They were treated to the sounds of Renaissance works, standard Mass parts and pieces about the agony in the garden and Mary’s arrival at the tomb.
The pilgrims also poured into St. Mary’s Cathedral to pray and learn more about three of the 10 patron saints of the 2008 World Youth Day.
Young Catholics peered into the casket of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, one of the patrons whose body has not decayed since his death in 1925.
Frank Flaspohler, a pilgrim from Most Holy Trinity Parish, said seeing the icon of Our Lady of the Southern Cross was the highlight of his cathedral visit.
“It’s so lifelike and beautiful. She looks like a real mother,” he said of the World Youth Day patron.
The youth had an even more personal encounter with Mary, Jesus and other key figures in Christ’s life during a live reenactment of the Stations of the Cross. The July 18 event played out across six venues throughout Sydney starting with St. Mary’s Cathedral.
The disciples sat down for dinner with Jesus on the steps outside the cathedral while narrators read a reflection about the meal’s symbolism.
Once Jesus picked up his cross, he slowly carried it throughout the streets of Sydney while 270,000 onlookers watched from the sidelines and half a million worldwide tuned in via television.
Nicholas Lye, a pilgrim from Singapore, said the ninth station — when Jesus was nailed to the cross — stood out to him. The young man, who carried his own five-foot wooden cross to Australia, admitted he suffered through the harbor’s cold evening winds while watching the stations.
“I can only imagine how much more Jesus suffered for us” on the cross, Lye said.
Kevin Ferreira, a St. Thomas the Apostle pilgrim, found deeper meaning in the 12th station.
“It talks a lot about vocation,” he said of the reflection on Jesus’ death on the cross. “It’s saying how we need to put His plan first” and say at the end of life that “it is accomplished.”
Fr. Chauncey Winkler, pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Lake Havasu City, thought the meditations for the Stations of the Cross were the best he’d heard.
Many of the world’s bishops agreed. Bishop Anthony Fisher, coordinator of World Youth Day, said in a press conference that, afterward, he had bishops begging for DVD copies of the presentation.
Time in reflection and adoration throughout the World Youth Day journey proved to be a time of growth for teens and Sydneysiders alike.
“Sydney has been struck by a tsunami of faith and joy,” Bishop Fisher said.
Angela Bevilacqua, a pilgrim from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Tempe, said the trip taught her more about the woman God wants her to be.
For John Winter, a pilgrim from St. Bernadette Parish in Scottsdale, it was about gaining a greater sense of community within the Church.
“I used to think that I was so alone even in a large crowd,” he said, “but after spending time in adoration and spending time with my friends, I guess I’m not alone.”
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