Three hundred archdiocese youth bound for WYD

Parish youth groups put on imaginative events to fly to Australia

By ALICIA AMBROSIO
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton

At least 300 young people from the Edmonton Archdiocese are preparing to meet Pope Benedict XVI at World Youth Day in Australia this summer, said the archdiocese’s youth ministry coordinator.

Andrew Papenbrock, youth ministry coordinator for the Archdiocese of Edmonton, told the WCR he is pleasantly surprised with the turnout for the July 15 to 20 WYD given that the International Eucharistic Congress is taking place a month earlier in Quebec City.

“About two thirds of the pilgrims are first-time World Youth Day participants, which shows us that it’s not just the same faces all the time, which means there are new young people being drawn into the faith journey,” Papenbrock said.

Two pilgrimages

He believes there are so many new pilgrims because many young people who have perhaps already attended one or more World Youth Days — and may not have the resources to get to Sydney — have opted to attend the Eucharistic Congress in Quebec.

In the past, the archdiocese did the bulk of the work promoting World Youth Day. But this time the parishes and young adult groups have taken on the job of promoting the event, fundraising for the trip and helping pilgrims prepare spiritually, he said.

“That’s what it’s supposed to be all about.”

Fundraising ideas

The demands of preparing for the pilgrimage have also unleashed a wealth of creativity on the part of group leaders. The group from Holy Rosary Parish, with 35 pilgrims, needed to do some serious fundraising. They organized two Waterpark fundraisers, selling tickets to the West Edmonton Mall wave pool and making a healthy profit.

The group from Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Sherwood Park set up a picture of Canada and a picture of Australia in their hall and sold footprints that they then put up on the wall to connect the two pictures. Their idea has caught on and several other groups will be attempting to sell footprints in the near future.

While some groups have struggled with their fundraising, others didn’t have much difficulty raising the necessary funds. The pilgrims from St. Dominic Savio Parish reached their goal but felt there was still more they could do.

Some of the young people from St. Dominic Savio attended WYD 2006 in Cologne, Germany, where they met several priests from India. They learned that the parishes in India did not have enough resources to send groups of pilgrims. Instead they planned to send a priest to represent the entire congregation at WYD.

When the St. Dominic Savio group finished its fundraising, it decided to raise more money to pay for a pilgrim from India to attend the event in Sydney.

With the help of a Salesian priest from India who visited the parish last summer, the pilgrims from St. Dominic Savio will sponsor a young man named Robi Mondol from Calcutta. Mondol is a 22-year-old university student. He is described as a permanent fixture at Monsada Parish, his home parish, and shows “much promise of continued leadership,” said Father Jude, youth coordinator for the Indian province of the Salesians.

The pilgrim groups from Edmonton will leave for Sydney in early July. One group will stop in Fiji to do missionary work before heading on to Australia. Another Edmonton group will go straight to Sydney ahead of time to help the Youth Mission Team prepare parishes for the onslaught of youth from around the world.

Archbishop Smith

Several groups will spend time in Brisbane to prepare for the main event. Archbishop Richard Smith will be in Brisbane with those groups.

World Youth Day was an initiative of Pope John Paul II, who was inspired by massive gatherings of young people in Rome celebrating the youth jubilee in 1984 and the United Nations International Year of Youth in 1985. He wanted to bring together young Catholics from around the globe to celebrate and learn about their faith on a more regular basis.

Every two to three years, a massive international gathering celebrates WYD in a different host city: Cologne, Buenos Aires, Czestochowa, Paris, Toronto, Manila and Denver have all been hosts.

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 -- Western Catholic Reporter