West Virginia youths 'ecstatic' about being on boat with pope
WHEELING, W.Va. (CNS) -- A group of 26 West Virginians selected to accompany Pope Benedict XVI on the "Sydney 2000" cruise boat for the papal arrival at World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, July 17 were "ecstatic" to have that opportunity.
Mike Hall, director of the Wheeling-Charleston diocesan Office of Youth, Young Adults and Campus Ministries, said the group was one of eight in the world chosen to accompany the pope on the boat.
A total of 200 pilgrims were to be with the pope July 17 as the boat made its way from Sydney's Rose Bay pier along the harbor to the Barangaroo East Darling Harbor pier for a welcoming festival and speech by the pope.
Megan Fahey, a member of St. Michael Parish in Wheeling and a 2007 graduate of Central Catholic High School in Wheeling, said she was happy for the entire group and had "never been more excited for anything in my life."
Before leaving for Sydney, Fahey told The Catholic Spirit, the diocesan newspaper, that attending World Youth Day was "a great opportunity to begin with" and that she had been excited throughout the two years the group was planning and preparing for the trip.
Nicole Liette, a member of Sacred Heart Parish in Huntington and a graduate student at Marshall University, also in Huntington, said World Youth Day and the experience with the pope would be "an incredible spiritual journey" for her and the rest of group, and it also would be a different and "more exciting way to add to your spiritual development."
Fahey said the group had several reflection retreats to prepare for Sydney. She emphasized it was an event to be taken seriously as a religious experience, not a vacation.
She called it an opportunity for spiritual growth, "not just another trip with your friends... . It is a chance for all of us to grow."
Hall said the youths heading to World Youth Day understood the seriousness of the event and embraced it.
"This," he said, "is a statement on how young people want to celebrate their Catholicism" and the experience would allow them to express who they are as young people and as Catholics and to find answers to questions they have.
The West Virginia group of pilgrims was one of 1,140 U.S. groups attending World Youth Day. The biggest group was from Pittsburgh, with more than 600 young people, making it the largest youth day delegation in the world outside the host archdiocese.
In the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., Bishop William F. Murphy told a group of pilgrims going to Sydney from Long Island that "a pilgrimage is always a time of hope because it means we're heading toward something better, we're praying for something more."
"But it's also a time of great confidence because we know we don't go alone. We always have the Lord with us," he said in his homily at a July 6 send-off Mass at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre.
On July 10, 106 Long Island teens, young adults and chaperones left for Sydney. As part of their preparation for the trip -- and as part of a follow-up to it -- the pilgrims and their families planned to say 236 rosaries, pray 68 Holy Hours, hold 196 days of fasting and abstinence, and carry out 81 acts of charity.
"I know that you made sacrifices to be able to go to Sydney, and most of all, the sacrifices that you made in terms of the prayers and the offerings for our Holy Father," Bishop Murphy said at the Mass. "(This) is going to be a pilgrimage of great hope."
He said they would bring back to the diocese the power of the Holy Spirit "so that our church will be a stronger church and a livelier church."
The Australian organizers of World Youth Day expected approximately 100,000 young people from their own country plus 125,000 international visitors to be in Sydney.
According to a news release from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, 15,000 young people from the United States were going, forming the largest pilgrim group outside Australia.
Fifty U.S. bishops, including Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George, who is USCCB president, planned to join them. For the first time at World Youth Day, the USCCB was sponsoring a Mass, to be concelebrated July 19 by the cardinal and several other U.S. bishops.
Armando Cervantes from the Diocese of Orange, Calif., was one of 12 young adults from all parts of the world chosen to have lunch with the pope July 18. Juan Martinez from the Diocese of Austin, Texas, was one of several young people chosen to be confirmed by the pope at the closing Mass July 20.
Annalee Moyer, from the Washington Archdiocese, and Leonardo Jaramillo, from the Atlanta Archdiocese, were selected to be part of a 200-member international liturgy group. As representatives of all World Youth Day pilgrims, members were to take leading parts in all the major events of the international gathering, including papal ceremonies and liturgies.
"I am truly blessed by this opportunity to experience the universal church in such a unique way with my peers from around the world," said Moyer in a statement.
From the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., 126 pilgrims went to Sydney; they included 20 young adults and four adult chaperones from Holy Family Parish in the borough of Queens. Accompanying the pilgrims were Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and Auxiliary Bishop Frank J. Caggiano.
One of the Holy Family pilgrims, Jack Timothy Magat, who just finished his freshman year at Stony Brook University, said that for him the trip would be "a renewal of my Catholic faith and beliefs" and "a chance to see how Catholics from around the world can gather in celebration and worship."
The Holy Family group raised money for the trip in various ways, including a walkathon and sales of rosaries and lapel pins with an image of Mary. Parishioners as well as family, friends and relatives of the pilgrims supported the efforts.
Mary Scheer, principal of the parish school and one of the chaperones, told Catholic News Service prior to leaving for Sydney that everyone in the group hoped their faith "will be deepened and enriched by this opportunity to come together with others from around the world."
Even as they prepared to go to World Youth Day, "spiritual changes in the kids" were obvious, she added.
For those unable to go to Sydney, various U.S. dioceses planned events at home.
In Illinois, for example, Catholic teens, young adults and youth ministers from across the Chicago area were going to gather July 19 for "World Youth Day 2008 Chicago Style": eight hours of entertainment, music and multilingual catechetical sessions, along with the celebration of Mass at St. Hyacinth Basilica.
The dioceses of Ohio and Michigan organized a gathering in Sidney, Ohio, taking place simultaneously with the Australian events.
WHEELING, W.Va. (CNS) -- A group of 26 West Virginians selected to accompany Pope Benedict XVI on the "Sydney 2000" cruise boat for the papal arrival at World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, July 17 were "ecstatic" to have that opportunity.
Mike Hall, director of the Wheeling-Charleston diocesan Office of Youth, Young Adults and Campus Ministries, said the group was one of eight in the world chosen to accompany the pope on the boat.
A total of 200 pilgrims were to be with the pope July 17 as the boat made its way from Sydney's Rose Bay pier along the harbor to the Barangaroo East Darling Harbor pier for a welcoming festival and speech by the pope.
Megan Fahey, a member of St. Michael Parish in Wheeling and a 2007 graduate of Central Catholic High School in Wheeling, said she was happy for the entire group and had "never been more excited for anything in my life."
Before leaving for Sydney, Fahey told The Catholic Spirit, the diocesan newspaper, that attending World Youth Day was "a great opportunity to begin with" and that she had been excited throughout the two years the group was planning and preparing for the trip.
Nicole Liette, a member of Sacred Heart Parish in Huntington and a graduate student at Marshall University, also in Huntington, said World Youth Day and the experience with the pope would be "an incredible spiritual journey" for her and the rest of group, and it also would be a different and "more exciting way to add to your spiritual development."
Fahey said the group had several reflection retreats to prepare for Sydney. She emphasized it was an event to be taken seriously as a religious experience, not a vacation.
She called it an opportunity for spiritual growth, "not just another trip with your friends... . It is a chance for all of us to grow."
Hall said the youths heading to World Youth Day understood the seriousness of the event and embraced it.
"This," he said, "is a statement on how young people want to celebrate their Catholicism" and the experience would allow them to express who they are as young people and as Catholics and to find answers to questions they have.
The West Virginia group of pilgrims was one of 1,140 U.S. groups attending World Youth Day. The biggest group was from Pittsburgh, with more than 600 young people, making it the largest youth day delegation in the world outside the host archdiocese.
In the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., Bishop William F. Murphy told a group of pilgrims going to Sydney from Long Island that "a pilgrimage is always a time of hope because it means we're heading toward something better, we're praying for something more."
"But it's also a time of great confidence because we know we don't go alone. We always have the Lord with us," he said in his homily at a July 6 send-off Mass at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre.
On July 10, 106 Long Island teens, young adults and chaperones left for Sydney. As part of their preparation for the trip -- and as part of a follow-up to it -- the pilgrims and their families planned to say 236 rosaries, pray 68 Holy Hours, hold 196 days of fasting and abstinence, and carry out 81 acts of charity.
"I know that you made sacrifices to be able to go to Sydney, and most of all, the sacrifices that you made in terms of the prayers and the offerings for our Holy Father," Bishop Murphy said at the Mass. "(This) is going to be a pilgrimage of great hope."
He said they would bring back to the diocese the power of the Holy Spirit "so that our church will be a stronger church and a livelier church."
The Australian organizers of World Youth Day expected approximately 100,000 young people from their own country plus 125,000 international visitors to be in Sydney.
According to a news release from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, 15,000 young people from the United States were going, forming the largest pilgrim group outside Australia.
Fifty U.S. bishops, including Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George, who is USCCB president, planned to join them. For the first time at World Youth Day, the USCCB was sponsoring a Mass, to be concelebrated July 19 by the cardinal and several other U.S. bishops.
Armando Cervantes from the Diocese of Orange, Calif., was one of 12 young adults from all parts of the world chosen to have lunch with the pope July 18. Juan Martinez from the Diocese of Austin, Texas, was one of several young people chosen to be confirmed by the pope at the closing Mass July 20.
Annalee Moyer, from the Washington Archdiocese, and Leonardo Jaramillo, from the Atlanta Archdiocese, were selected to be part of a 200-member international liturgy group. As representatives of all World Youth Day pilgrims, members were to take leading parts in all the major events of the international gathering, including papal ceremonies and liturgies.
"I am truly blessed by this opportunity to experience the universal church in such a unique way with my peers from around the world," said Moyer in a statement.
From the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., 126 pilgrims went to Sydney; they included 20 young adults and four adult chaperones from Holy Family Parish in the borough of Queens. Accompanying the pilgrims were Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and Auxiliary Bishop Frank J. Caggiano.
One of the Holy Family pilgrims, Jack Timothy Magat, who just finished his freshman year at Stony Brook University, said that for him the trip would be "a renewal of my Catholic faith and beliefs" and "a chance to see how Catholics from around the world can gather in celebration and worship."
The Holy Family group raised money for the trip in various ways, including a walkathon and sales of rosaries and lapel pins with an image of Mary. Parishioners as well as family, friends and relatives of the pilgrims supported the efforts.
Mary Scheer, principal of the parish school and one of the chaperones, told Catholic News Service prior to leaving for Sydney that everyone in the group hoped their faith "will be deepened and enriched by this opportunity to come together with others from around the world."
Even as they prepared to go to World Youth Day, "spiritual changes in the kids" were obvious, she added.
For those unable to go to Sydney, various U.S. dioceses planned events at home.
In Illinois, for example, Catholic teens, young adults and youth ministers from across the Chicago area were going to gather July 19 for "World Youth Day 2008 Chicago Style": eight hours of entertainment, music and multilingual catechetical sessions, along with the celebration of Mass at St. Hyacinth Basilica.
The dioceses of Ohio and Michigan organized a gathering in Sidney, Ohio, taking place simultaneously with the Australian events.