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By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer
ROME, ITALY—Twinkling streams of bright colors painted the
black night sky as fireworks exploded overhead.
Though the experience was nearly over, the best was yet to come.
After a Saturday night prayer vigil that ended in a spectacular fireworks
display, young pilgrims, occupying miles of land in a large open field, spent
the night to awake to a Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II.
The Mass was a joyous conclusion to the pilgrimage in which
hundreds of young people from the Archdiocese of Atlanta joined millions from
around the globe to celebrate their faith at World Youth Day 2000.
The pilgrimage began Aug. 12, as over 200 teens, young adults,
leaders and six priests from about 20 different parishes and St. Pius X High
School, boarded flights to Rome. Other area youth left a few days earlier to
join the national Life Teen organization in attending a Youth Arise Rally in
Turin, Italy, prior to events in Rome. For many of them, they would return Aug.
21 with changed lives.
The Atlanta pilgrims arrived in Rome, tired from the flight, but
energized by the prospect of exploring the roots of their Catholic faith. The
exploration began in Assisi, the city to which pilgrims have journeyed for over
700 years and where St. Francis lived and died. The next day, the group had
their first experience of Rome and of World Youth Day.
On Aug. 15, the young people gathered at St. Peter’s Square
for the opening ceremony of World Youth Day. Standing under a blazing sun for
hours, pilgrims from all nations were woven along barricaded streets anxious to
catch a glimpse of the pope, the man they call “Il Papa.” As he made
his way to St. Peter’s Square after addressing Italian pilgrims at the
Basilica of St. John Lateran, pilgrims waved colorful pieces of construction
paper, representing their continents. Throughout the crowd, chants of
“Viva España!” “Polska!” and other chants of nations
echoed.
Though the temperatures were hot and the crowd totaled more than
400,000—said to be the largest crowd at the Vatican in recent
memory—the spirit of the pilgrims remained high as they watched on large
monitors throughout the square as the pope welcomed them.
“Dear young people, do not let the time that the Lord gives
you go by as though everything happened by chance,” he told the crowd,
which included over 17,000 Americans. “St. John has told us that
everything has been made in Christ. Therefore, believe unshakably in him. He
directs the history of individuals as well as the history of humanity.
Certainly Christ respects our freedom, but in all the joyful or bitter
circumstances of life he never stops asking us to believe in him, in his word,
in the reality of the Church, in eternal life!”
Throughout the evening, the crowd responded with spontaneous
bursts of applause or cheers. After English-speaking pilgrims chanted
“John Paul II, we love you!” the pontiff replied with “John Paul
II, he loves you!” and was met with thunderous applause. Though the pope
was tired, he obviously gained energy from the young people, laughing and
smiling as they cheered and chanted.
For R.D. Delgado, a teen from St. Pius X High School, the
experience at St. Peter’s that night was especially moving.
As his group made the trek to St. Peter’s, they prayed the
rosary, and as they began their last decade, they turned the corner and were
faced, many of them for the first time, with the view of St. Peter’s
Basilica.
“It was so huge and magnificent and there were hundreds of
thousands of people there,” he said. “All of this coming together all
at once was absolutely incredible. We literally had to yell to finish the last
decade.”
The next few days in Rome were spent sightseeing and participating
in World Youth Day events. During the day, the North Georgia pilgrims attended
catechesis sessions at a local church with other English-speaking WYD
participants.
Thursday, Aug. 17 was the Georgians’ day to tour Vatican
City. Because of the huge turnout for WYD, pilgrims were divided into three
groups of around 200,000 each and were given a day to tour the Vatican. They
entered the basilica through the Holy Door, stopping only briefly to bless
themselves before Italian guards hurried them along so that others could pass
through the door and into the largest church in the world.
During the day, many members of the group took the opportunity to
receive the sacrament of reconciliation.
Circus Maximus, the ancient Roman racetrack, was transformed into
an open-air venue for multilingual Masses and confessions. One side of the
racetrack held 13 tents with priests conversant in 30 languages set up in more
than 300 confessionals.
A large iron cross set up in the center of Circus Maximus was
surrounded by four large incense burners. The cross became a site for penance,
as pilgrims stopped there to burn incense and pray, some kneeling and touching
the cross.
For MaryAnn Donnelly, confession at Circus Maximus was a
highlight.
“It was an amazing sight to see all those priests in one
place to hear confession for so many people,” she said. “After
confessing and talking with the priest, I knew that my life and my soul were
just reclaimed for God and that I was no longer on a trip, but I was on a
pilgrimage that would allow me to fall in love again with God. It felt so
awesome that I went again the next day.”
On Saturday, the pilgrims packed up their belongings to make the
hike to Tor Vergata, an 800-acre field located at a Roman university. There
they joined youth and young adults from 157 nations in a tremendous celebration
of faith.
Throughout the day, participants walked through the crowd of an
estimated 3.2 million, trading items from home and sharing songs and dances
with those from other countries. Flags from many nations flying overhead were
the only relief from the hot Rome sun.
When daylight grew scarce, a white helicopter sounded overhead as
pilgrims waved to Pope John Paul II. Moments later the pontiff blessed pilgrims
as he made his way to the huge stage in the popemobile.
At the prayer vigil, the lights from millions of candles dotted
the black night. Teens and young adults from several countries gave testimonies
of their faith that brought the pope to tears as he hugged each one of them.
Later, Pope John Paul clapped and sang along to the soulful sounds of CeCe
Winans.
In his remarks at the prayer service, the pope encouraged the
young people to live each day for Christ, who, he told the youth, is closer to
them than they realize.
“It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of
happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he
is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with
that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he
who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your
hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle,”
he said. “It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great
with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves
to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and
patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and
more fraternal.”
A fireworks display was the finale to the prayer service at Tor
Vergata.
Father Adrian Pleus, a parochial vicar at St. Catherine of Siena
Church in Kennesaw, said that he was inspired by Pope John Paul’s reaction
to the youth.
“The pope’s enthusiasm was beautiful to see,” he
said. “I was impressed by the energy he had all of a sudden.”
The next morning, pilgrims awoke to join in the Mass celebrated by
the pope. In his closing homily, he encouraged the pilgrims to accept Christ
and to change their world with his love.
“Our society desperately needs this sign, and young people
need it even more so, tempted as they often are by the illusion of an easy and
comfortable life, by drugs and pleasure-seeking, only to find themselves in a
spiral of despair, meaninglessness and violence,” he said. “It is
urgent to change direction and to turn to Christ.”
Khristina Danchetz, a parishioner of the Church of the Good
Shepherd, Cumming, who made the pilgrimage with her sister, Melissa, said she
was grateful for the opportunity to share the experience with her. “It
really brought us closer together because we are able to share that faith
aspect of our lives,” she said.
The Danchetz sisters also attended World Youth Day in Denver in
1993, but Khristina, who was 16 at that time, said that this pilgrimage to Rome
as an adult was a completely different experience.
“Now I have a better understanding of my faith and I can
really listen to what the pope says and take it to heart and apply it to my
life,” she said.
After a farewell dinner and a night of rest, the archdiocesan
group boarded flights back to Atlanta, many of them armed not with souvenirs
but with renewed faith.
“It’s made my faith a lot stronger,” said Kristy
Guris, a teen from Transfiguration Church in Marietta. “The whole
atmosphere of being surrounded by so many people believing the same thing you
did was so awesome ... It made me realize that the church is more than just
America, more than just Marietta,” she continued.
Though the trip proved trying at times, Guris said that the
struggles the pilgrims faced were a positive addition to the experience.
“It was not a vacation,” she said. “Even though you
were hot and sweaty and dirty ... you had to overcome those things and keep
yourself in a good mood and remind yourself why you were there. It was all
worth it.”
To see the millions gathered in the name of Christ was also
inspiring to Delgado.
“It’s just comforting to know that you’re not the
only one,” he said. “There are people going through the same things
you are.”
Father Pleus said that he was encouraged by the faith of the
youth.
“What was most striking to me was the prayerful disposition
of so many of the young people,” he said. “Their willingness to help
each other and their love for the church is what really struck me.”
The gathering for World Youth Day, said to be one of the largest
in Vatican history, gave the world the chance to see the power of faith in its
youth, said Barb Garvin, associate director of youth ministry for the
archdiocese.
“To know that the youth had that impact on the world is just
phenomenal,” she said.
Matthew Robaszkiewicz, archdiocesan director of youth ministry,
said that the opportunity to share one’s faith with the youth of the world
and to encounter the Holy Father were blessings.
“World Youth Day is an incredibly unique experience,” he
said. “You can hear about it, you read about it, but words are totally
inadequate to describe the experience.”
He said that watching the young people experience the trip is what
makes all the planning worth the effort.
“You see little things in their eyes, or hear little things
that they say and you see their willingness to participate,” he said.
“A lot of them are like three-year-olds on Christmas morning.”
He believes that the pilgrimage was a life-changing experience for
many of those who attended.
“It’s definitely made a lifelong impact,” he said.
“We might not know the effects yet; they may seem small, but the changes
could be monumental to that person.” |
