WYD protesters proven very wrong

Throughout the World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid this past August, protesters gathered each evening to protest the costs paid the Spanish and Madrid government associated with the WYD.

As it turns out - and was known at the time - the entire cost of the WYD was covered by registration and fees and private donations; the government paid nothing.  But neither the protesters nor the media - particularly the British media - paid no attention to this fact.

A few days ago the WYD organizing office announced a staggering a figure of profits made in Madrid during the course of the WYD: $200 million.

Will the protesters now kindly apologize?  I won't hold my breath.

Will the media now kindly apologize?  I won't hold my breath for that, either.

Cardinal George: The purpose of communism and of contemporary secularism is the same

Writing in the Catholic New World, His Eminence Francis Cardinal Geroge, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago, reflects on his experience of the World Youth Day 2011.
His text follows, with my emphases:

World Youth Day, a festival for young Catholics from around the world, took place this year in Madrid, Spain, from Aug. 16-21. The World Youth Day celebration is held every two or three years in a different city. The first World Youth Day I participated in was held in Denver in 1993. A few years before that event, I had become bishop of Yakima, Wash. When I saw the great spiritual impact the five days of catechesis, prayer and celebration with the pope had on the young people who attended from Washington State, I was much encouraged. When the young people returned home and reformed youth ministry in that small diocese, I was grateful to God and to them. I have gone to almost every World Youth Day celebration since Denver.

Hardworking youth ministers and volunteers in many parishes and schools of the archdiocese carefully did the preparation for Chicago’s participation in World Youth Day 2011 (See story on Page 7). The archdiocesan celebrations here and in Madrid were organized by the youth ministry section of our Office for Catechesis and Youth Ministry. We were a small part of the 1.5 million young people in Madrid, but the spiritual effects here will bear fruit in this Year of Teens and Young Adults, according to the Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan. I was proud of our young people in Madrid, many of whom took part in catechetical sessions I was assigned to give. The weather was hot and the vigil ceremony on the last night before the pope’s closing Mass was rained on, but the Archdiocese of Madrid organized the many events efficiently and their volunteers demonstrated an enthusiasm that was contagious.

On my way to Madrid for the World Youth Day events, I stopped for a day in Fatima, Portugal. It was my first visit to the place where the Blessed Virgin Mary, as Our Lady of the Rosary, appeared to three shepherd children in 1917. It was a private pilgrimage, an occasion for personal prayer and for deeper study of the apparitions. The third edition of the Roman Missal, which we will begin using this coming November, includes for the Universal Church the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. It will be celebrated every year on May 13, the anniversary of the first apparition.

The apparitions of Our Lady in Lourdes, France, which took place about 70 years before the apparitions in Fatima, brought the Blessed Virgin Mary into the lives of many people who are sick. The apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima, Portugal, brought Mary into events marking the history of the world throughout the 20th century. In both apparitions, the Blessed Mother told the visionaries to pray the rosary to bring peace to the world and also to do penance for sinners who turn away from God’s loving mercy. Mary’s message is that of the Gospel of her Son: repent, do penance for your own sins and the sins of the world and come to understand how God is guiding the world and is present to all of us in every event, from personal sickness to wars and social movements that shape world history.

At Fatima, Mary spoke about the errors of communism, which had recently come to power in the Russian Revolution, and the persecution that the communist movement would inflict upon the church. She assured the children that the Great World War was ending but warned that a far greater war would come unless sinners repented. As I visited remnants of the fallen Berlin Wall that, at the Fatima shrine, bear mute witness to how Mary’s words spoke to the central events of the 20th century, I wondered what she would say today.

Mary’s message would be the same, but the enemies of God and the church would not be confined to followers of communism. The purpose of communism and of contemporary secularism is the same: to create a society where God cannot appear in public, to erase any evidence of religious belief from public life and to prevent the church from acting in history, confining the church’s mission to private worship, carrier of a belief system that can have no influence on society except on secularist terms. In this sense, secularists in this country and elsewhere are successors of the communists of the last century. Recently, they have driven the church out of adoption and child-care services in Illinois. In other states and at the federal level, legal constraints have been crafted to secularize the Catholic health care system and much of the outreach of Catholic Charities. But these external constraints are only witness to something far more chilling to those who cherish freedom: seeing to it that consciences informed by the Catholic faith are as unprotected in law as are the lives of unborn children. The historical irony now is that many of those who have passed laws that will be used to punish the church as a discriminatory organization would still identify themselves as Catholics. The church is no more discriminatory than is God, whose moral law the church is commissioned to preach and to carry out.

In Madrid, despite a few disgruntled protesters, young Catholics shaped the public life of a great city for five days. In between the public Masses and talks, the youth led the Way of the Cross. In a catechetical session on witnessing to Christ in the world, I had told the young people that, if they were to be missionaries of Christ in our society, they should be prepared to carry the cross. Catholics are persecuted violently in many places in Africa and Asia; they are persecuted legally, in ways sometimes obvious and sometimes not, in Europe and Canada and the United States. The persecution is always for a “good” reason, whether equal “justice,” as was the excuse under communism, or equal “rights,” as is the case here. In any case, young people who are serious about their life in Christ should realize that they will be the object of social disapproval or contempt or even legal punishment as our society continues to secularize itself in ever more aggressive ways.

Fatima and the Gospel itself remind us that God is not indefinitely mocked in any historical movement or moment. We should work and pray so that, a century from now, Catholics visiting Fatima will not stop before a memorial to another social experiment that, like communism, proved itself morally and financially bankrupt: American secularism.

The youth from around the world who gathered in Madrid reflected and prayed and sang about three themes: firm in the faith; established in Jesus Christ; witnesses to Christ in the world. The world is better for World Youth Day. The young people were open and joyful. They knew the One in whom they place their hope, despite the dangers and difficulties of the times. If they stay resolute, with the help of God’s grace, the human race need not be trapped in the hypocrisy and despair marking our historical moment. World Youth Day 2011 was a good week, and it bore the promise of better times to come.

The obligation is to attend Mass, not to receive Communion

Sometime Sunday morning before the arrival of the Holy Father, an announcement over the loud speakers (which they were) to the effect that because the winds took down the Eucharistic adoration tents during the night it would not be possible for Holy Communion to be distributed to the 1.5 million pilgrims.
Something in this announcement - made in English - didn't make sense to me and my fellow priest secretaries and masters of ceremonies could also make little sense of it.  Together we devised an hypothesis that now seems to have been correct.

The Catholic News Service's Cindy Wooden has the details, with my emphases and comments:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- More than a million young Catholics learned the hard way about a venerable Catholic tradition: "spiritual Communion" or the "Communion of desire."

After a wild storm Aug. 20 at World Youth Day in Madrid left six people injured -- including two with broken legs -- Spanish police collapsed the tents where most of the unconsecrated hosts for the next morning's Mass were being kept [it didn't make much sense to us why the hosts were already in the tents, but several things about Spanish liturgies didn't make sense to us].

Without the hosts in the tents, organizers had 5,000 ciboriums holding 200 hosts each; they were consecrated by the pope at Mass Aug. 21 and distributed to pilgrims in the section closest to the altar.

Distributing Communion to just 100,000 people wasn't a decision anyone took lightly, and apparently there were long discussions with World Youth Day organizers and Vatican officials trying to find a solution. In the end, it just wasn't possible logistically to locate another 1.5 million hosts.

A couple of hours before the Mass, organizers announced that most of the people present would not be able to receive; they asked the pilgrims to offer up that sacrifice for the pope's intentions and told them they could receive Communion later in the day at any church in Madrid [which seemed an unlikely solution for at least two reasons.  First, it isn't always easy to find a priest in the church on a Sunday afternoon (and the rectories are hard to locate).  Second, it would be very difficult to, I should think, to find 1.5 million consecrated hosts in the tabernacles of Madrid].

The decision to cancel Communion for most Mass participants was reached "with the greatest pain," Yago de la Cierva, director of World Youth Day Madrid, told reporters Aug. 21.

Whenever there is a huge crowd for a Mass, whether in St. Peter's Square or at a World Youth Day, there always are some people unable to get to the Communion distribution point in time to receive. But in Madrid, de la Cierva said, "almost everyone" was among those not receiving.

Obviously, receiving Communion is the way to participate most fully in the Mass, but it's not always possible for everyone to receive at every Mass, nor do many Catholics in the world even have regular access to Mass.

The idea of "spiritual Communion" -- inviting Jesus into one's heart and soul when receiving the actual sacrament isn't possible -- is part of Catholic tradition.

In the 1700s, St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote a special prayer for spiritual communion: "My Jesus, I believe you are really here in the Blessed Sacrament. I love you more than anything in the world, and I hunger to receive you. But since I cannot receive Communion at this moment, feed my soul at least spiritually. I unite myself to you now as I do when I actually receive you."

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said it would be a huge mistake to believe the Mass had no value for those who were unable to receive Communion.

"Communion is always an extraordinary gift, and one must be in awe of being able to receive it," he told Catholic News Service Aug. 24.

"It is not something one can presume to have an absolute right to as if he'd bought a ticket for it by going to Mass. Someone who thinks that hasn't understood who is in the consecrated host and what the Mass is," the spokesman said.

The eucharistic adoration and benediction at the vigil in Madrid underlined that point, he said. Jesus is present in the Eucharist, which is why it is adored and why Catholics spend time in its presence, even outside of Mass.

The "eucharistic fasting" many of the young pilgrims in Madrid were forced to endure could also help them be in spiritual solidarity with other people who find themselves desiring the Eucharist, but unable to receive it, he said.

"I'm thinking of Catholics deprived of priests in many parts of the world for many reasons," he said, but there also are those "who would like to celebrate the Lord's Supper with other Christians, but don't have intercommunion out of respect for the norms of the church. Isn't it meaningful in these situations to know we can unite ourselves with Christ through love and desire?"

In an era when people are encouraged to receive the sacrament frequently, they don't hear the term "spiritual Communion" very often, but it is still mentioned in church documents.

The Vatican's preparatory document for the 2012 International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin said those who cannot receive the Eucharist can have spiritual Communion, declaring their desire to receiving the Eucharist and uniting "their suffering of that moment with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ."

The working document for the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in 2005 addressed the idea of offering up the sacrifice of being unable to receive Communion. It said: "Spiritual Communion, for example, is always possible for elderly persons and the sick who cannot go to church. In manifesting their love for the Eucharist, they participate in the communion of saints with great spiritual benefit for themselves and the church. By offering their sufferings to God, the church is enriched."

In "Sacramentum Caritatis," the document he issued in 2007 reflecting on the synod, Pope Benedict cautioned people against thinking they had "a right or even an obligation" to receive the Eucharist every time they went to Mass.

"Even in cases where it is not possible to receive sacramental Communion, participation at Mass remains necessary, important, meaningful and fruitful. In such circumstances it is beneficial to cultivate a desire for full union with Christ through the practice of spiritual communion," Pope Benedict wrote.

Of busses and bishops

Being bussed around the city of Madrid and its environs was a unique experience.

For security purposes, we had a police escort wherever we went that - at least for the gatherings with the Pope - consisted of two police motorcycles in front, two on the side and two more following the busses.  For the gatherings without the Pope I think the escort was simply one police motorcycle both ahead of and behind the busses.

I have to admit, it was rather fun being escorted in this fashion and helped our travels greatly since we didn't stop at any stoplights.

If you're ever travelled with a large group in a foreign place, you may know that - even as they do at home - people tend to travel in small groups within the large groups.  Even bishops.

It struck me several days into the World Youth Day that whatever bus - generally there were two busses - Bishop Paprocki and I rode on also carried His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago, and His Excellency the Most Reverend Clarence "Larry" Silve, Bishop of Honolulu.

I don't know that there's much meaning in this recurring coincidence, but it was interesting to notice.  I do know that neither Bishop Paprocki nor I planned it this way; we just hopped the bus that was usually the least full.

Paprocki: Young people are eager to receive God's mercy and forgiveness

In his bi-weekly column, His Excellency the Most Reverend Thomas John Paprocki, Bishop of Springfield in Illinois, reflects of his experience of the World Youth Day 2011.  His text follows, with my emphases:

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

This column comes to you from Madrid, Spain, where I have attended World Youth Day with Pope Benedict XVI for a gathering of one and a half million pilgrims from 193 countries from around the world. Among those participating are almost one hundred young people and adult leaders from our Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, including Father Brian Alford, Father Chris Brey, Father Nnamdi Moneme, Father Daren Zehnle, and seminarians Steve Arisman and Hyland Smith.

The tradition of World Youth Days was started by our late Holy Father, Blessed Pope John Paul II. Skeptics scoffed that it wouldn’t work. They thought young people would not come to an event focused on religion being led by an elderly pope. Wow, were they wrong! Huge crowds of young Catholics have been gathering for these events now held every two or three years each time in a different part of the world.

The first World Youth Day that I attended was in Toronto when I was a pastor of a parish and drove with 15 young people and five adults from Chicago to Toronto. It was an experience I’ll never forget, especially the closing day. We had camped out in sleeping bags in the open field where Pope John Paul II would celebrate the closing Mass. At about 5 in the morning, it started to rain. We priests who were concelebrating had to arrive early at the Mass site to go through security and put on our vestments. By now it was raining very hard, but we had to sit and wait for a couple of hours for Mass to start. Even with plastic ponchos over our vestments and holding umbrellas over our heads, we were totally soaked by the time Mass started. Instead of a Penitential Rite, the Mass booklet said, “Rite of Sprinkling.” Pope John Paul II looked out at the crowd in the pouring rain and declared, “Today we will have the Rite of Sprinkling by natural means!” Then after he said the prayer, the rain stopped and the sun came out as we began singing the Gloria. No wonder he has been beatified and will likely be declared a saint!

Here in Madrid it has been mostly hot and dry, typical for Spain in August. I have been beating the heat by running early in the morning before the sun comes up. At that hour it is still cool and I had the park mostly to myself before the crowds of people started pouring in. I’m training to run the Kansas City Marathon on Oct. 15 with the LIFE Runners. I’ll write more about that in my next column.

World Youth Day is really a week-long series of events, which began on Tuesday, Aug. 16, with an outdoor Opening Mass for the pilgrims in the Plaza de Cibeles that I concelebrated with the many other bishops and priests from all over the world. The principal celebrant was the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Ruoco Varela. During the week, there were many scheduled activities, including catechesis led by several bishops in various languages, opportunities for the sacrament of penance, plenty of music, and time just to meet and be with other people.

On Friday I celebrated Mass for the group from our diocese and preached on the invitation of Pope Benedict XVI to join him in here in Madrid to pray together, to reflect together and to learn together how to be “planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith” (cf. Colossians 2:7). I noted how we from the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois come from a part of the country where farming is very important and we can appreciate the Holy Father’s metaphor of being firmly planted in the faith. Earlier this week, Father Zehnle and I were driving to Alton for Mass with the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George. I noticed that the corn had already grown very tall. It was a visible reminder that the seed firmly planted bears fruit in abundance.

I then did a question and answer session with our group for about an hour, covering a wide range of topics including the church’s teaching on sexuality and marriage, devotional prayer, eucharistic adoration, vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and how Christianity came to Spain through the apostolic work of St. James. Afterwards Father Zehnle was asked to hear confessions by some of our pilgrims and I was asked by some Spanish people to hear their confessions. Fortunately I remembered the words to the Prayer of Absolution in Spanish from my years as a parish priest working with Mexican immigrants. Going to confession is something we might think young people are not interested in, but actually they are eager to receive God’s mercy and forgiveness.

Afterwards Father Zehnle and I walked back to our hotel. On the way, crowds were already gathering for the Way of the Cross, and many of them stopped me to ask for a picture, since I was wearing my bishop’s cassock. I met people from across the United States and Canada, as well as from a variety of other countries, greeting them in English, Spanish, Polish and Italian. The most enthusiastic people to greet me and have their picture taken with a bishop were from Taiwan. I don’t speak Chinese, but fortunately they spoke English very well.

On Saturday morning the bishops and priests of the United States celebrated Mass for thousands of American youth at the local sports arena, led by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago as the main celebrant and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York as the homilist. Archbishop Dolan gave an inspiring homily about St. Peter’s life being turned around and upside down by Jesus and how we are called to do the same as we gather with the pope, the successor of St. Peter. His words were just the right preface that we needed for the culmination of the trip, the Saturday evening Prayer Vigil and the closing Mass with the pope on Sunday morning.

The rains came on Saturday evening and interrupted the pope’s homily, but everyone just waited patiently for the rain to stop and then we continued. Sunday morning was sunny and bright. For me the most powerful moments were the periods of silent prayer during eucharistic adoration on Saturday evening and during Mass on Sunday. The silence of one and a half million people adoring God and meditating together in silence is a powerful witness of faith.

I’m sure this will turn out to be not only a memorable week but also a lifechanging experience for many of the participants, as they deepen their faith and commitment to the Lord.

May God give us this grace. Amen.

Benedict's Army

World Youth Days are always filled with pleasant surprises and these often come in the persons one unexpectedly meets.

The US Bishops celebrated Mass for the US pilgrims Saturday morning and invited the US priests to concelebrate.  At the sign of peace, I turned around and was surprised to see a familiar face: Fr. Robert Barron, who recently reflected on the Pope's young army.

His text follows, with my emphases:

I have just completed one of the most extraordinary weeks of my life. For the past eight days, I participated in World Youth Day in Madrid, a gathering of some 1.5 million Catholic young people with Pope Benedict XVI. I met enthusiastic teen and 20-something Catholics from the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Sweden, Nigeria, England, Australia, New Zealand, China, the Philippines, India, Denmark, and many other countries. The universality of the Church has never been, for me anyway, on fuller and more thrilling display. My Word on Fire team and I were especially encouraged to see so concretely the outreach that the Internet and the new media provide. To hear, over and again, and in dozens of different accents, that our videos and podcasts have made a difference in people’s lives was deeply gratifying.

Some images that will be forever burned in my memory: a twenty-thousand seat arena, absolutely filled with young Catholics rocking, stomping, and singing; Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, striding the stage like a pro, delivering one-liners worthy of David Letterman, and sharing the unvarnished Gospel with his youthful audience; giving a talk in a very hot room, jammed to the rafters with kids eager to hear about the process of discerning a vocation; hordes of young Catholics, wearing their distinctive yellow World Youth Day t-shirts, carrying overloaded backpacks, and marching through the streets of Madrid like a non-violent army; hundreds of fresh-faced religious in their distinctive habits, joyfully making their way through the various venues; tens of thousands of people kneeling in silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; the successor of Peter presiding over a crowd of one and a half million at an airfield southwest of Madrid; a steady stream of kids asking where they could find the adoration chapel or how they could arrange for confession; Benedict XVI himself, drenched with rain, but willing to stick it out with the giant crowd that was enduring a downpour in order to hear him. All of it rich, splendid, unforgettable.

But I would like to focus my reflections on a phenomenon that would actually be funny if it weren’t so tragic. I’m talking about the mainstream media’s extraordinary capacity to miss the point. Every night that I was in Madrid, I would return to my room after an incomparably rich day moving among the throngs of pilgrims and I would watch the news on CNN and the BBC. World Youth Day was, invariably, among the top stories, but the coverage was, not to put too fine a point on it, just bizarre. “Protestors descend on Madrid as the Pope arrives,” the BBC announcer would gravely intone; “The Pope was met today with strong opposition from secularists, gay rights activists, and Spaniards angry over World Youth Day’s cost to taxpayers,” the CNN anchorwoman would say, frowning into the camera. By the admission of the news reporters themselves, the number of protestors never reached beyond a few thousand, and not one event of World Youth Day was interrupted in the least by their demonstrations. There were, at most, a few scuffles between pilgrims and the protestors. But judging from the tone of the coverage, the average listener in the UK or the United States would have concluded that the Chicago riots of 1968 had broken out in the streets of Madrid. I actually laughed out loud when I focused in on some video of a “confrontation” between protestors and World Youth Day participants and noticed that at least half of the people in the picture were camera crews and reporters!

A million and a half young Catholics from all over the world come to celebrate their faith and to declare their solidarity with the Pope—and the networks obsess over a handful of protestors! I know that controversy sells papers and pleases sponsors, but anyone who was on the ground for World Youth Day couldn’t help but conclude there was something more at work in the gross discrepancy between reality and reportage. The dirty little secret is that the actual World Youth Day doesn’t fit the standard secularist narrative, according to which Catholicism is a corrupt, backward-looking, moribund ideology, destined to fade away as science advances and subjectivist moral relativism becomes normative. A small percentage of priests engage in sexually deviant behavior? Blanket coverage. An international army of young people marches through the hot sun and then sits patiently through a rainstorm to see the Pope? Ho-hum. That’s called reporting the news according to a set of fairly rigid ideological assumptions and imperatives.

The Catholic Church—at least in the West—is passing through a dark period, largely of its own making. But has the Catholic Church lost the future? The mainstream media wants you to think so. But any of those who experienced World Youth Day first hand would say, “Don’t you believe it.” 

Amen!

Memories and images of WYD 2011

I have now been to two World Youth Days, the first in 2008 in Sydney, Australia and the second in 2011 in Madrid, Spain. Both have been memorable experiences in their own rights. Because I have previously blogged about the WYD 2008 – to which I accompanied nine students and two other chaperones – I will now offer a few memories and reflections about the WYD 2011 – to which I accompanied Bishop Paprocki.


Certainly the primary differences in the experiences of World Youth Day stems from the nature of the two pilgrims; it is a much different experience accompanying the youth than accompanying the Bishop, but each are good.

Bishop Paprocki went to the World Youth Day with 60-some other Bishops from the United States, several of whose priest-secretaries also accompanied them. Travelling with the Bishops gave me the opportunity to meet many Bishops whom I not otherwise have the privilege of meeting and it also allowed me to meet other priest secretaries to the Bishop. There is a natural fraternity among priests and it struck me that there is likewise a strong natural fraternity among priest secretaries.

We stayed in a hotel a few miles from the main events; walking to the main venues generally took about 30 minutes, but we always rode a bus to them for purposes of security. Just one block from the hotel was the United States Embassy; this may have simply been coincidental, but it might also have been planned; I’m not certain and never thought to ask.

Two World Youth Day volunteers, both Spaniards, accompanied the two busses of Bishops wherever we went and helped to coordinate the logistics of our travels and also provided helpful advice and guidance in planning side visits to various churches and enjoyable sites in Madrid.

The Bishop and I arrived at the hotel just after Noon on Tuesday and took a little rest before hopping on the bus to concelebrate the Opening Mass at Cibeles Square.

We entered first into what seemed to be a basement level to Cibeles Palace; the Bishops were taken to a large lobby area with albs, stoles and chasubles and the priests were sent outside. Afterwards I learned the priest secretaries were allowed to stay with their Bishops, but for some reason I was sent outside to the section for the “normal” priests.



Apparently I don’t look intimidating enough when I ask questions and point out that other priest secretaries remained with their Bishop; this became a routine difficulty for me throughout the World Youth Day. I’m not quite sure what to do about it except to suggest to the organizers in Rio that the area volunteers be better instructed about priest secretaries.



The priests were situated in such a way that from our chairs we could see nothing of the Mass, which made it a curious and straining thought to concelebrate such a Mass.

On Thursday afternoon we joined the Bishops and gathered again at Cibeles Square for to welcome Pope Benedict XVI to the World Youth Day. The Bishops were placed in a section in front and slightly to the right in front of the main stage and the priest secretaries were placed in a similar position, but to the left of the main stage; this afforded an excellent view.

Friday afternoon we gathered in the church of San Jeronimo el Real just behind the Prado Museum with the four groups of pilgrims from the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. Bishop Paprocki celebrated Mass for the pilgrims and Fathers Brian Alford, Chris Brey and Nnamdi Moneme, O.M.V. concelebrated. After the Mass the Bishop answered questions from the pilgrims before dismissing them for the Via Crucis, which I attended with the pilgrims from St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Effingham.

By far, the most impressive and memorable moment of the World Youth Day was Saturday’s Prayer Vigil with the Holy Father at the Cuatro Vientos Air Base. We arrived to the field several hours early and took our places on the main stage, where the Holy Father would be seated. Naturally, the priest secretaries were seated towards the back of the stage. I took a seat with several other priest secretaries from the United States in the second to last row of chairs at a spot where I would have a good profile view of the Pope.

As we waited for the arrival of the Holy Father, I noticed clouds gathering in the west and I became a little concerned. Umbrellas were provided for the Bishops and priests at the events in Cibeles Square, but, for some reason were not present at the air field. We pulled our Blackberries – which I abhor – and checked the forecast, which said it would be cloudy but there was a 0% (zero) chance of rain. With minds at ease, we continued our wait.

The edge of the stage was maybe 20 feet behind us as I began to watch the massive crowed of pilgrims I noticed a number of volunteers were forming a line along the drive behind us. Then I noticed several groups of policemen along the same drive. Then I noticed a cameraman with a security guard, who wore a bullet-proof vest; he meant business. It occurred to me then that the Pope would be arriving just behind us.

We still had a good hour or so before the Pope would arrive so I took it upon myself to investigate the rest of the stage. There was a ramp off of the drive behind us leading up to the stage, but there seemed to be no other way to the platform itself.

The World Youth Day Cross and Icon that travel the world prior to each WYD arrived behind us on the ground level with the volunteers who would carry it to the Pope and hand it off to the next group of youth from the next WYD’s host city.

It was then that I became certain, and I suggested to my companions that we took our places at the very edge of the stage to get excellent pictures of the Holy Father’s arrival.  At one point one of the secretaries - who knew where his Bishop was seated (individual Bishops tend to get lost in a sea of identical chasubles and mitres) went to bring him to the stage; he was kind to bring Bishop Paprocki, too.

Then Monsignor Marini and his entourage arrived to await the Holy Father's arrival and I knew I was in the right spot.

Sure enough, shortly after we did so the Crown Prince arrived and, shortly after him the Holy Father himself.

Despite the forecast, the clouds darkened, the winds picked up, the lightening flashed and rain poured from the heavens, drenching Pontiff, Bishops, priests and pilgrims alike. As Father Dan Flens remarked, it certainly proved that the rain in Spain does indeed fall mainly on the plain.

It was this downpour and these winds that made the night so touching.

As volunteers scattered to find hats and umbrellas to distribute to whomever they could, a few of the Bishops, concerned for their cassocks – which are not cheap – ran for the cover of a nearby security tent. Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI, with the assistance of Msgr. Guido Marini remained in the wind and the rain.

He gave his blessing to the Deacon who proclaimed a passage of Saint John’s Gospel in Spanish. At one point, the youth erupted in spontaneous applause and great cheers of gladness, crying out “Be-e-ne-de-to!” and “Esta es el juventud del Papa!” I turned to the secretary next to me, who understood spoken Spanish better than me, and asked what the deacon said: “Remain in my love” (John 15:9).

Through their enthusiasm, the youth of the world taught us how to weather every one of life’s storms: remain in the love of Jesus Christ. As some Bishops fled for safety, the youth remained with their Papa, gathered in the love of Jesus Christ. Their shouts of glad confidence in the love of Christ lifted my heart, brought tears to my eyes and moved me profoundly. It was a moment I shall never forget.

As his assistants did their best to keep the Pope dry, Pope Benedict XVI smiled more widely and longer than he has smiled throughout his entire papacy; clearly, he, too, was moved deeply by the faith and trust of the youth who had gathered to be strengthened in the faith by the Successor of Peter.

After some time, Pope Benedict XVI spoke a few words and then went backstage for what seemed a long time. Meanwhile, firefighters checked the safety of the scaffolding behind him and a large monstrance emerged from the stage in front of the altar.

I can’t remember quite clearly when the rain stopped, but I think it stopped while the Pope was backstage. Because Spain has almost no humidity, our cassocks were dry again within twenty minutes; the continued winds certainly helped. The rain cooled the temperature quite a bit, which was a certainly a blessing for the pilgrims who had been in the hot sun all day.

The Pope returned in cope and mitre and lead some 1.5 million youth, with their Bishops and priests, in silent adoration of the Eucharistic Lord.

This, too, was a profound moment of grace. To be in the presence of the Lord with so many of his people was certainly a foretaste of heavenly glory. And to be silent with them – absolutely silent – in the humble praise of God is a grace beyond words.

The faith of the youth is strong. This prayer vigil confirmed the truth of the words Pope Benedict spoke during his first homily as Pope: “The Church is alive…the Church is young!”

After a few hours of sleep, the Bishops returned to the air base for the Closing Mass of the World Youth Day. This time, the Bishops were on the platform joined with a great many more Bishops than were present Saturday night. The priests were placed on the ground level immediately in front and to the left of the stage. This time our location was good.

Their Majesties the King and Queen arrived and shortly afterwards Pope Benedict XVI arrived and rode through the massive gathering of pilgrims prior to the celebration.

A time of silence was again observed by the more 1.5 million pilgrims as they prepared for the Mass. The announcement that the next World Youth Day will take place in Rio de Janiero was, of course, no surprise since the mayor of Rio foolishly announced some days ago.

With the memories of this WYD still fresh in my mind I pray I will be able to attend the World Youth Day 2013.

Of two sorts of youth

Sitting in the airport en route to Madrid, I found a post from Father Toborowsky asking us to examine the difference in media reports of the youth in the riots in Britain and the youth at the World Youth Day.

This morning I was happy to see the article by Ben Akers at First Things in which he comments on World Youth Day and the London Riots (with my emphases):

Although it is tempting to point to economic and social disadvantages as the root cause of the recent unrest in the United Kingdom, it is refreshing to find that part of Prime Minister David Cameron’s assessment is moral turpitude. In addressing the nation, he said that the “slow-motion moral collapse” of the youth is due to the unwillingness “for too long to talk about what is right and what is wrong. We have too often avoided saying what needs to be said, about everything from marriage to welfare to common courtesy.”

In contrast to British society’s failure to speak the truth on the things that matter, Pope Benedict XVI, like his predecessor John Paul II, is not afraid to challenge the young to moral excellence. Recently there was another gathering of youth in another capital city in Europe, although this gathering did not lead to anything remotely resembling the scenes of destruction broadcast from London. Over a million young people from the 193 countries of the world gathered peacefully in Madrid, Spain to celebrate World Youth Day. These triennial events began in 1985 to offer the youth of the world an opportunity to encounter each other and deepen their own personal sense of faith. The theme for this year’s event was “planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith” (cf. Col 2:7).

In each World Youth Day message from the past, the Roman Pontiff has been the only world leader to consistently call youth to a high moral standard of living. He is the lone voice entreating the young to pursue greatness. In his message inviting the youth to participate in this year’s event, Pope Benedict XVI speaks directly to the attendees recognizing that the world has offered them the easier way, the choices which are “ultimately deceptive and cannot bring you serenity and joy.” He observes that the “eclipse of God” and moral relativism do “not lead to true freedom, but rather to instability, confusion, and blind conformity to the fads of the moment.” Not a bad description of the events in London.

The pope’s phrasing here highlights a common theme of his assessment of Europe’s moral crisis. By untethering the anchor of Judeo-Christian values, society has no moral grounding and begins to drift. If moral relativism is allowed to be the centering principle of one’s life and society all decisions are equally valid and “truth and absolute points of reference do not exist.” The economic and social “causes” for the riots in London (and now the “flash mob” crime scenes here in the U.S.) are really manifestations of a moral crisis in society.

Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that “it is vital to have roots, a solid foundation! This is particularly true today. Many people have no stable points of reference on which to build their lives, and so they end up deeply insecure.” Centering one’s life on following Christ will be a major theme of the Pope’s addresses to those gathered in Madrid as he encourages the youth of the world to form their character through good moral choices. By living under the Nazi regime and from his pastoral experience, he recognizes that without a solid moral grounding of one’s life spiritual atrophy is inevitable.

Euclid taught in his Elements that a circle must have a center or it becomes a different shape, it becomes something else. Without the fixed point anchoring the peripheral line of the circle there is anarchy, “without ruler.” The human person and the society in which he lives must have a center or they, like Euclid’s circle, will morph into undesirable and unintended forms. If there is no self-rule and mastery, human life and society devolves into anarchy. As the scenes from the London riots allow us to see, the moral center of the contemporary West is no longer clear, if indeed it exists at all.

This week an octogenarian pontiff will travel to the social, economic, and geographic center of Spain challenging people two generations younger than himself to ground themselves in Gospel values. In less than a two-week span, the world will have witnessed two alternatives for the future of civilization: one, a further slide into anarchic, frenzied destruction; the other, a return to Christian living. The rioters in London demonstrated a certain kind of spiritedness in the past few weeks: a spirit of total disengagement and disrespect for their culture. A very different kind of spirit was on display in Spain: the Holy Spirit of God, which offers an opposite vision of a world transformed by love, joy, and hope. Let us pray that this new generation of youth gathered in Madrid will stand up in faith against what Yeats would have called the “blood-dimmed tide” by witnessing to the liberating power of the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Spanish protesters should have welcomed Pope simply on economic grounds

You may or may not have heard very much in the secular media about the great gathering of young Catholics in Madrid, Spain with the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI for the recent World Youth Day 2011.

Much of the secular media coverage focused on those who protested the Papal visit on economic grounds.  It is no secret that Spain is in a serious crisis and it was argued the government should not be spending money at such a time.

Little attention was paid to all of the money already spent in the years of planning and preparing for the global gathering of some 1.5 million Catholics (some estimates are as high as 2 million).

The Prime Minister of Spain received criticism from the protesters for welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to Madrid.

One of the aspects of the protests not covered by the media is the way in which they clashed with riot police (no riot police were needed for the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims; only for the "thousands" of protesters).

AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti

AP Photo/Arturo Rodriguez

Notice the lack of riot police, despite the size of the crowd.
AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos

What also received little attention was how protested verbally assaulted pilgrims, whereas the pilgrims returned the insults with prayers.

AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti

AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti

According to the head of Madrid's chamber of commerce, the pilgrims brought with them some 160 million euros (about $230 million) that were spent in Madrid and will surely be a great boost to the Spanish economy.  Spain estimated the pilgrims would only spend 100 million euros ($144 million).

After the first protest, the Holy See, noting the great amoung of money that would be spent in Madrid by the pilgrims, said the "event will not cost anything" for the Spanish government; the relatively small costs associated with the World Youth Day would be more than compensated by the monies they would spend.

Now, you might be wondering what the cost of the World Youth Day was.  It was - compared to the economic influx brought by the pilgrims - rather small: 50.5 million euro ($73 million); the amount spent in Madrid was more than four times the cost of the event.  Even if the meagre estimate was met by the pilgrims, the World Youth Day would have brought in twice the amount spent.

The simple economic data demonstrates the false logic of the protesters; if they lamented the economic state of Spain they should have welcomed the pilgrims with open arms.

Update: I forgot to include this detail in the original post: the WYD was - surprise, surprise - entirely self-financed.  All of those protesters protested against nothing.

Of two sorts of youth

Airport terminals are useful for at least one thing in life: catching up on electronic mail and blogs.

As I sit here in the airport waiting for our flight to Madrid for the World Youth Day, I couldn't help but notice this challenge from Father Jay Toborowsky:

Watch for (any) mainstream media coverage of World Youth Day. See the contrast between the angry youth of the English riots/looting with the participants of WYD. 

See if the media tries to draw comparisons.

I give this same challenge to you.  Don't forget to make comparisons.

Pope grants indulgences for World Youth Day 2011

From Catholic World News:

The Vatican has announced a plenary indulgence for participants in next week’s World Youth Day festivities in Madrid.

At the request of Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid, Pope Benedict XVI has authorized a plenary indulgence for those who “devoutly participate at some sacred function or pious exercise taking place in Madrid during the 26th World Youth Day,” under the usual conditions. (The usual conditions for a plenary indulgence include sacramental confession, a thorough detachment from sin, reception of the Eucharist, and prayer of the intentions of the Pope.)

A partial indulgence is also available to all the faithful who during the time of the World Youth Day meeting, “if, at least with a contrite spirit, they will raise their prayers to God the Holy Spirit, so that young people are drawn to charity and given the strength to proclaim the Gospel with their life”  [more].

Bishop Silva: WYD, a high point in life with lasting effects

His Excellency the Most Reverend Clarence "Larry" Silva, Bishop of Honolulu, will accompany some 100 youth from Hawaii to the World Youth Day in Madrid.
Bishop Silva shared his reflections on WYD with the USCCB Media Blog (with my emphases and comments):

I attended WYD in Sydney in 2008 [I saw him there, but can't seem to find the picture we took]. I was particularly impressed with the joy demonstrated when youth from different countries encountered each other on the streets and greeted each other with love.

Every now and then the Lord gives us special events, high points in life that may not last long in themselves but that have lasting effects. I believe WYD is such a gift. It is one way the Lord sparks the fire of love in the hearts of youth – and those who have the privilege of accompanying them – so that they can set others on fire with the love of Jesus.

About 100 pilgrims from Hawaii are attending WYD, and I think it is important for me to be present with them at this potentially life-changing event. I also pray that I will develop an ongoing relationship with these young leaders in the Church, so that we may work together to share the Good News of Jesus for years to come.

I hope the youth will have such a deep experience of encounter with the risen Christ through his Body, the Church, that they will dedicate themselves more fully to working for peace among the nations; justice for all, not just for our own friends and close neighbors; and enthusiasm for giving life-long witness to Jesus in every aspect of their lives and in all the institutions in which they participate.

I know the gifts of youthful enthusiasm and openness to the truth will enrich all who participate and all whom the participants touch in the future.

Aloha!

Pope to hear confessions at WYD

Sandro Magister brings to our attention two important elements Pope Benedict XVI has introduced to World Youth Day.  In 2005, he introduced adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  In 2011, he will himself hear the confessions of some of the pilgrims.

A part of Magister's text follows, with my emphases:

ROME, July 5, 2011 - World Youth Day is not an invention of Benedict XVI, but of his predecessor.


Pope Joseph Ratzinger, however, has introduced two very significant innovations.

The first was in Cologne, in the summer of 2005. At the culmination of the nighttime vigil, Pope Benedict knelt before the consecrated host. At length, and in silence. With hundreds of thousands of young people touched by this act of adoration.

Since then, with Pope Benedict, silent Eucharistic adoration has become a constant not only of the World Youth Days, but also of other mass gatherings, for example the vigil in Hyde Park in London, on September 18, 2010.

The second innovation will be introduced in Madrid, on the morning of next August 20, in the Jardines del Buen Retiro. At the 26th World Youth Day, which will be held in the Spanish capital, the pope will administer the sacrament of confession in public, for one hour before celebrating the Mass in the cathedral.

To be precise, the confessions have been part of the program of the World Youth Days ever since the one held in Rome in 2000, when the Circus Maximus became for many hours the largest open-air confessional in memory.

But until now, the pope had never dedicated himself to hearing the confessions of young people in person, during a World Youth Day.

John Paul II used to spend a few hours in a confessional in the basilica of Saint Peter once a year, on Wednesday of Holy Week.

Benedict XVI has repeated this action only two times, until now: in two penitential celebrations with the young people of the diocese of Rome, in the basilica of Saint Peter, on the Thursday before Palm Sunday, March 29, 2007 and March 13, 2008.

But that the sacrament of confession is at the center of his pastoral care is beyond doubt.

He has spoken of it many times. Above all to priests. For the Year for Priests he held between 2009 and 2010, he proposed as a model the Curé d'Ars, a saint who spent more than ten hours in the confessional every day, with penitents who flocked to him, a humble rural pastor, from all over France.

Magister has many fine links at the end of his full article in which the Pope speaks of confession.

WYD 2011: Be a Part of History

Spanish Bishops: John Paul II gained the love of young people by calling them to be saints

With the following message, the Bishop of Spain have invited the youth of the world to the World Youth Day 2011, to be held in Madrid (with my emphases):

As World Youth Day approaches, which will take place in Madrid from August 16-21, the Spanish bishops, gathered in plenary assembly, address this brief message to you to encourage you to take part in it. We know that many of you are preparing yourselves with eagerness and encouraging your friends and companions. For our part, we invite you all, as Benedict XVI has in the message he addressed to you in connection with this day: "I would like all young people -- those who share our faith in Jesus Christ, but also those who are wavering or uncertain, or who do not believe in him -- to share this experience, which can prove decisive for their lives. It is an experience of the Lord Jesus, risen and alive, and of his love for each of us."

1. Live with joy and hope

From the beginning of the Church, its pastors have looked to you with hope and joy because you are the present and, above all, the future of society and of the Church. In his first letter, St. John addresses you with these words: "I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one" (1 John 2:14). Today, the Successor of Peter writes to you saying: "I await each of you with great joy. Jesus Christ wishes to make you firm in faith through the Church."[2] We also, as your bishops, have confidence in you and regard you not only as recipients of the Gospel of Christ, but as protagonists of the history of the Church and of her building. The motto of World Youth Day could not be more expressive: "Planted and Built Up in Jesus Christ, Firm in the Faith" (cf. Colossians 2:7). In this beautiful stage of life, which youth is, we encourage you strengthen and build your faith, to deepen your roots in Christ, who loves you and calls you to friendship and proposes your following him in the priesthood, in consecrated life or in marriage to make of you his witnesses. He will give you the light and strength to build your future, through study, a profession and work that, despite the economic difficulties and present-day unemployment, you struggle to obtain.

Pope John Paul II, the announcement of whose beatification has filled us with joy, put you at the center of his interest and mission. He has been called the "Pope of young people," because of the affection and dedication with which he distinguished you. He did not gain your affection through adulation or posing to you reduced exigencies in the following of Christ. On the contrary, he asked you for the best of yourselves, the capacity to give yourselves totally to the love of God and men and to lead a Christian life removed from all mediocrity, going against the current, if necessary, of our time. How many times he invited you to be saints! Thinking of you, he began the passionate adventure of World Youth Days so that, as young people, you would manifest to the world the joy of living in Christ, the youth and beauty of the Church, and the firmness of a faith that is for all a sign of the presence of the living God. Yes, friends, this is the meaning of the forthcoming World Day to which we invite you, convinced of your openness to truth and of your capacity to create bonds of friendship with young people from all over the world.

2. Celebrate a genuine feast of faith

Within a few months the Church that journeys in Spain will live the experience of receiving in the dioceses and finally in Madrid hundreds of thousands of young people convoked by Benedict XVI to celebrate the 26th World Youth Day. For almost one week, you will have the occasion to pray personally and in community, to participate in the catechesis of bishops from all over the world on the meaning of being Christian, you will celebrate the forgiveness of God and the Eucharist, and you will express in many ways -- concerts, exhibitions and different cultural events -- the joy of the faith, which changes your life and projects you onto the world as creators of works where charity, justice and truth shine. The Pope's presence will enable you to feel yourselves members of the universal People, which is the Catholic Church.

Hence, World Youth Day will be an authentic celebration of the faith, which will show how Christians are what today's world needs: "peacemakers, promoters of justice and workers for a more humane world, a world in accordance with God's plan," who commit themselves "in different sectors of the life of society, contributing effectively to the welfare of all."[3] It is a question, young friends, of making visible that "Christ is not a treasure meant for us alone; he is the most precious treasure we have, one that is meant to be shared with others. In our age of globalization, be witnesses of Christian hope all over the world."[4]

We invite you to take part in World Youth Day as expression of your adherence to Christ and membership in the Church. For this participation to be true and fruitful, we encourage you from now on to go on a spiritual pilgrimage toward Christ, conscious that "the quality of our meeting will depend above all on our spiritual preparation, our prayer, our common hearing of the word of God and our mutual support."[5] We ourselves, your priests, catechists and young people of your communities will support you in this task. You are not alone, because you are part of the one Church of Christ that journeys in the world. We only ask you to trust and to put into play all your capacities."

3. Put forth the young face of the Church

Your responsibility as young people of the host country is very great. In a certain sense you will be the face of the young Church that will receive pilgrims from the whole world. The days of hospitality in the dioceses will be an unforgettable experience to live the universality of the Church and the enormous richness and vitality of each diocese of Spain, which received the Gospel of Christ from the first hour of Christianity.

Encourage your friends and companions to take part in the different tasks of hospitality and in volunteer work, in the celebrations of faith and in the activities that each diocese prepares. Offer yourselves also as volunteers for the many organizational tasks in Madrid, venue of World Youth Day. Efforts will be made to serve everyone so that all will feel welcomed and loved for themselves. We also ask you for solidarity with young people from the neediest countries. Many of them, often isolated from experiences of this kind, wish to take part in the Day to live dimensions of the faith and of ecclesial life that enrich them. We also expect young people from countries where the Church is persecuted, who will strengthen us with their testimony. Be generous when you register, contributing your quota of solidarity. You will make many of your companions happy.

We do not wish to end without thanking you ahead of time for receiving this message and for your work in the Church. Receive our words as a sign of the affection and closeness we feel for you. The Church needs you to proclaim to all the love of God. We know that you also love us and need us to grow in your faith and in the Christian life. We journey in Christ, the way that leads us to the Father. We are all wayfarers and we all aspire to reach our goal together. Are these not sufficient reasons to live in the communion that the Spirit has given us? Will not our joy be greater if we all meet with the Successor of Peter when he comes to confirm us in the faith?

Let us pray therefore for one another so that this World Day, as the previous ones, will root and build us in Christ and convert our faith into the solid rock on which our life is founded. We will not be lacking the protection of Mary, Mother of Christ and of the Church, who from the goal of our pilgrimage watches over and protects our steps.

We bless you in the Lord Jesus Christ
Madrid, March 2, 2011

WYD 2011 Promo Video

Logo for WYD 2011

The good folks at Zenit pass on the recently unveiled logo for the upcoming World Youth Day 2011 to be held in Madrid, Spain:
The Zenit article offers the following description of the image:

The logo designer, José Gil-Nogués, explained that the image symbolizes "youth of the whole world united to celebrate their faith together with the Pope, at the foot of the cross, and they form the crown of Our Lady of Almudena, patron of Madrid."

The crown, Gil-Nogués added, forms the "M" of Mary and of Madrid. And the cross, symbol of Christianity, presides over the event.

The message of the logo, the designer continued, is "a catechesis, an opportunity for evangelization: The quick and sure path to reach Christ is the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of mankind. In Mary's faith, youth have the example and model for reaching Christ and fulfilling the primary goal of World Youth Day: to bring their message to the world."

"The logo has a firm and spontaneous stroke," Gil-Nogués suggested, "like youth of the 21st century. It is close, friendly, open. Joyful, carefree and positive."

"The use of a palette of warm colors -- red, orange and yellow -- transmits unmistakable warmth and friendliness, symbols of the identity of a city like Madrid, a nation like Spain. These colors also reflect the 'divine warmth' of Trinitarian Love."

What struck me immdiately about the logo was the lack of the anacronym WYD for World Youth Day. I have since learned that in Spanish speaking countries the title of WYD is not preferred. Instead the phrase "Jornada Mundial de la Juventad" is used, hence the anacronym JMJ on the logo.



The gathering of the world's youth is scheduled to take place 16-21 August 2011 and will have as it's theme, "Rooted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith" (cf. Colossians 2:7).



An official website for the event has been launched, though it is only in Spanish.

WYD 2011 Dates

Madrid, July 23 (CNA).-The governor of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, has announced that the dates for World Youth Day 2011 will be August 15-21. She also assured the public that local officials would support the event and ensure it would be a success.

"I am sure Madrid will be ready to welcome the Pope as he deserves for the next World Youth Day, which will be held in the Spanish capital in 2011," Aguirre said in response to the announcement.

She said she shared the sentiments of Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid, who said the event would "have important repercussions for the social, cultural and general life of Spain."

Aguirre said she was "very happy" that Spain was chosen as the host city for the next World Youth Day and that "it will be a great opportunity for the young people of Madrid, whether they are Catholic or not, because the Pope is a worldwide authority."