World Youth Day 2002 slated for Canada

By WCR Staff
and Canadian Catholic News

And Mary Ganton says she expects at least double 1,100 Alberta youth who attended the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver to go to the 2002 event in Toronto.

Toronto Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Meagher told more than 80 Catholic bishops at their annual meeting in Cornwall, Ont., Oct. 18 that he was told by a top Vatican official that Canada had been chosen to host the week-long event.

Meagher, chair of the Canadian bishops' board planning World Youth Day 2002, said when he met with Cardinal James Stafford, head of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, in July, the cardinal offered congratulations that Canada had been selected to host the event.

The news will not be official until Pope John Paul announces it next August at World Youth Day 2000 in Rome.

In Edmonton, Ganton was pleased the event is coming to Canada.

"For those kids who went (to Denver), they will say it was a life-changing experience," she told the WCR.

Alberta young people took part in the Denver event for as little as $300 each, she said. But going to the 2000 event in Rome will cost more than $3,000 apiece. About 150 youth in the archdiocese are expected to attend.

When World Youth Day is held overseas, it tends to focus parish youth groups on the massive fundraising required and other activities are sometimes put aside, Ganton said.

But having the event in Canada will mean parish youth activities can be designed to blend into World Youth Day, she said.

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