Photo By NANCY ERIKSON
Youth from St. Mark Parish, Cleveland, and St. Bernadette Parish and St. Ladislas Parish, both in Westlake, gathered last weekend at Mass where fellow parishioners gave them a prayerful send off to Sydney for World Youth Day.
Youth from St. Mark Parish, Cleveland, and St. Bernadette Parish and St. Ladislas Parish, both in Westlake, gathered last weekend at Mass where fellow parishioners gave them a prayerful send off to Sydney for World Youth Day.
Going Down Under
Local youth look forward to Australia WYD
Sarah Slavic, a 23-year-old graduate of Ohio University, looks forward to attending her third World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, July 15-20.
“I was pleasantly surprised by my first pilgrimage to Toronto,” she said. “It was a real introduction to my faith, and at that time I felt I needed something more in my life. It was perfect timing and rounded out who I was a person.” Since then she feels World Youth Day calls her to return. “It keeps finding me.”
Like many others who have attended World Youth Day, Slavic feels it shows them what it means to be Catholic and to share something in common as part of a community of youth from around the world.
Amanda Naujoks, youth minister at St. Bernadette and St. Ladislas churches, Westlake, will bring Slavic and 10 other pilgrims from both parishes. “We’ve attended the last two World Youth Days in Toronto and Germany and got so much out of the experience that we decided to try for Australia as well,” she said. The group will be staying with host families while they’re there.
More than 125,000 are expected to attend the six-day event called a pilgrimage in faith and experience the love of God. Large screen televisions throughout the city will screen all of the major events live.
Seventeen-year-old Margaret Babington eagerly looks forward to her trip to World Youth Day, seeing it as an opportunity to grow in her faith.
”I’m looking forward to meeting people from around the world,” she said, “to connect with them and hear their stories and see what we all have in common.”
The Laurel School senior is joining the group of pilgrims from St. Basil the Great Church, Brecksville, to attend what has been called the largest youth event in the world.
St. Basil the Great pilgrims led by youth minister Tommy Dome will make the trip with 24 pilgrims, many of them families. “It’s a great opportunity for families to share this experience,” he said. They will be staying at a retreat center that is near Sydney.
For youth minister Ursuline Sister Denise Marie Vlna and 42 pilgrims from St. Charles Borromeo Church, Parma, World Youth Day has become a parish tradition. “Most of them will attend for the first time, the second in their families, following their older siblings,” she said. “They’re really looking forward to this trip that brings the global church together and to celebrate their faith.”
Following another parish tradition, the group will bring a Petitions Booklet with them. Parishioners are invited to write their prayer requests, which will be read throughout the trip as well as at the Papal Mass.
World Youth Day commences with opening Mass celebrated by Cardinal George Pell. Teaching sessions, Stations of the Cross and youth festivals will be followed by a Papal Boat-a-cade on Sydney Harbor and motorcade through Sydney streets to welcome the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI July 17.
On Saturday visitors will make a pilgrimage across the Sydney Harbor Bridge to Randwick Racecourse and Centennial Park for an evening vigil with the Pope and sleep under the stars until the final Mass celebrated by the Pope at Randwick Racecourse Park the next morning.
Pam Adams, youth minister at St. Mark Church, Cleveland, will lead 19 parishioners, including 12 youth and 7 chaperones, who have been working diligently raising money for the last 18 months to make the historic trip.
“The kids are so excited,” she said. “They’ve been working so hard to help finance their trip.” Some of them had been to World Youth Day in Toronto, and the idea just evolved to attend in Sydney. They gathered for a send-off Mass at St. Mark’s on July 6.
Some in the group have attended World Youth Day in Rome and Toronto. Eighteen-year-old Mary Wankewycz, who graduated from Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School in June, is among those attending for the first time. “I’m embracing this opportunity to share my faith with the whole world,” she said. The highlight of her trip is the Papal Mass, but she also is anxious to hear the speakers and learn more about her faith and learn the view point of others from around the world.
Several of the groups will be leaving early to participate in the Days in the Diocese Program, which is an option for the four days prior to World Youth Day. Dioceses throughout Australia and New Zealand have opened their parishes to pilgrims for social and spiritual activities, including concerts, speakers and reconciliation.
Pilgrims from St. Mark’s have opted for this option. “I think it’s a neat thing to do,” Adams said. She’s especially looking forward to living at host parishes and schools while they’re there. “It’s such a unique experience to be spending that much time with pilgrims from throughout the world.”
Planning for World Youth Day has been a great part of youth ministries work for as long as two years, including many meetings and fundraising. Everything from candy and ham sales, silent auctions, clambakes, concession sales at Progressive Field, theme dinners, pancake breakfasts, raffles and car washes netted as much as $35,000 for one parish group to help finance the trip.
Klima is a freelance writer.
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