by Lisa Alves

SAO PAULO (CNS) – Members of the local organizing committee for World Youth Day say that, with the recent election of an Argentine pope, they expect up to 2.5 million young people at the international event in Rio de Janeiro.

“We currently have 200,000 pilgrims already registered, but registrations go on until the last day of the event,” said Carol de Castro, press coordinator for the local organizing committee. She said the committee expects 800,000 pilgrims to have registered by the start of the event, which runs July 23-28.

The Vatican has not announced the exact dates Pope Francis will attend but has indicated it will be his first international trip.

Castro said that although registration is not required for most of the events planned for World Youth Day, it is recommended, since with the registration, pilgrims will have access to free transportation to many of the events, help in finding accommodations and will receive a pilgrim’s kit with important information about the event and the city. If the pilgrim has opted for the packages that include meals, a list of accredited restaurants will be included.

Argentines make up the largest group of foreign nationals chosen to be volunteers during the six-day event, although volunteer registration had already closed when the name of the new pope was announced in late March. Approximately 15 percent of the 60,000 volunteers chosen are from Pope Francis’ birth nation.

Organizers say they expect that, by July 23, more than one million beds will be made available for pilgrims in family homes, schools, recreational centers and churches. The pilgrims will be able to stay free of charge in these locations.

Security in Rio de Janeiro should be tighter than normal in June and July, since the city is also hosting the final of the FIFA Confederations Cup 2013 at the end of June.

Pope Benedict XVI receives the official World Youth Day 2011 backpack from Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela of Madrid during a private meeting at the Vatican in early February. The cardinal was the archbishop of Santiago de Compostela in 1989 when Pope John Paul II met young people there for World Youth Day. Spain is preparing to host World Youth Day in Madrid Aug. 16-21. (Photo courtesy Catholic News Service.)

by Antonina Zielinska

I-Confess video winners, Melinda Collins and George Simon chat with Currents’ host Matt McClure on the set of The NET’s daily news program.

Nearly 200 students from all around the country responded to the i-Confess challenge of making a one-minute YouTube video encouraging viewers to partake in the sacrament of reconciliation.

They competed for the grand prize of $50,000 to be shared equally by the winner and his or her school. The contest was sponsored by the Diocese of Brooklyn in collaboration with the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

With nearly 25,000 views and over 700 “likes,” Melinda Collins won the contest with her video, Get Clean.  Second place and a $10,000 educational scholarship went to Caled and Molly Herboth for their video, Be Reconciled to God. Virginia Jacobson and Douglas Kraeger won third place and $1,000 for their video, Backpack of Sins.

Collins, who starred in her winning entry, is a senior at John Paul the Great Catholic University in San Diego, California. The school will use its share of the prize money as a scholarship for George Simon, who was the cinematographer and co-editor of Get Clean.

Simon was forced to leave school one year before earning his bachelor’s degree due to financial difficulties.

“I would never have been able to finish,” he said. “When I had to leave John Paul University I was heartbroken.”

During the year he was off from school, Collins contacted him about the idea for the video. Eager for a creative outlet and motivated by the possible prize, Simon was excited about the project. However, Collins was overwhelmed with school and extracurricular activities.

The two filmed the entire project when a class cancellation gave Collins a three-hour window of time. Despite her busy schedule, she made her way to Simon’s apartment to film only after she attended Mass.

“I try to go to daily Mass,” she said. “Especially when I am working on something, I need to go to Mass.”

Having asked God for help, Collins faced the task of filming without a script or a clear plan for the video.

Simon said the project presented man y challenges that forced the two to find innovative solutions. Not having professional camera equipment, he spent much of the time filming on top of his makeshift tripod that consisted of a roll of plastic bags on top of a cooler.

Despite their creativity, Collins said many of the problems they encountered required extra help. She said many of the aspects of the film resulted out of necessity, instead of choice.

“The timing and the circumstances of this project are all extraordinarily providential,” she said.

The students said the popularity of the project was beyond their control because they did not start promoting the video until four days before the cutoff date.

The popularity of the video was a great reward in itself, Collins said, because it allowed her to spread the message of God’s forgiveness. As a student, she said she feels restricted in how much she can spread God’s message.

With this project she brought the topic of confession up for discussion in a worldwide forum. Her video has over a hundred comments, many of which thank her for the inspirational message in the video.

“The reason I think it was successful is because it was very true,” she said. “The reason I wanted to make this film is because I experienced it. This is what confession is to me.”

The video, scored to a song by Rachel Fannan, can be viewed on i-confess.com.

Because of contacts made through the video competition, Collins and Simon have been asked to do a documentary on pilgrims from Brooklyn and Queens who will walk the Way of St. James in Spain in August.

They also will provide footage of the diocesan delegation to World Youth Day in Madrid for broadcast on Currents, The NET’s daily news show.

by Antonina Zielinska

Msgr. Anthony Hernandez, pastor, stands with the World Youth Day delegation from Transfiguration parish after he blessed them during Sunday Mass.

After a year and a half of spiritual preparation and fundraising, 10 young people from Transfiguration parish, Williamsburg, are less than two weeks away from joining thousands of pilgrim from throughout the world to celebrate World Youth Day in Spain.

“It will be an experience of a lifetime,” said Arisleidy Maran, one of the 10 pilgrims. “And I am very exited that we will be going together.”

The pilgrims, all of whom attend Mass in Spanish, know each other well through the many ways they minister to the parish community. Aside from the weekly youth meetings, they donate their time and talents to the parish in various ways including: volunteering in the homeless shelter, serving as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, assisting during feast days of saints, staffing the rectory and being part of the Jornada movement.

Pilgrim Michelle Enriquez said she is looking forward to World Youth Day because it will bring a new perspective to the group.

“I’m excited to meet other young people,” she said. “It’s amazing, because it’s going to be a reminder that we are not alone.”

Jason Espinal, a seminarian in his pastoral year, will be one of the chaperones at World Youth Day.  He grew up in Transfiguration parish and became part of the youth group when he was 14 years old. It was at the seminary that Espinal realized the Church community is so much bigger than just his parish. He said he hopes the members of the youth group going to Spain will have a similar realization.

“I can’t wait to see their face when they see that they are not the only youth group — that as much as they pray and struggle, they are not alone, and that the Church will continue to have a future in them,” he said.

Coming to understand his relationship with the Church through the experience of others is one of the goals Jon Soto has set for himself while in Spain. He will ask people about the reasons for their faith because he struggles to understand that about himself.

“I will try to learn more about my faith through other people’s faith,” he said.

Soto said the preparations for the pilgrimage have already increased his understanding. The pilgrims had to face the challenge of raising enough money with the help of a community that is struggling financially.

“It shows that when you have a goal and a little bit of faith, anything is possible,” he said. “And if we are able to accomplish this, imagine what else we can accomplish.”

Pilgrim Pedro Ramirez said he did not want to join the pilgrimage at first because of the daunting task of fundraising.

“I didn’t think it was possible to raise money for everyone to go,” he said.  “My mom pushed me and made me see that it was possible.”

The group was able to raise enough money to pay the $3,189 per person pilgrimage fee.

“The people in the community helped us a lot,” Maran said. “Without them the fundraising would mean nothing. We are very blessed to be part of this community.  Father Tony is very supportive of the youth.  He supports our ideas and fundraisers and thank God for that.”

In their appreciation, the pilgrims said they will bring back what they learned and experienced during World Youth Day and share it with Msgr. Anthony Hernandez, pastor, and the rest of the church community.

It is because of the church that we are going to Spain,” said Pilgrim Elizabeth Enriquez. “It will help us appreciate the church more. We will value it to a higher extent.”

 by Cindy Wooden

This monstrance from the cathedral in Toledo, Spain, set into a towering 16th-century gothic structure of silver and gold, will be used at World Youth Day.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Benedict XVI has put his own stamp on the celebration of World Youth Day, and it’s especially clear in the gathering’s moments of prayer.
In Cologne, Germany, six years ago – Pope Benedict’s first WYD as pope – he surprised the youths at the Saturday night vigil by urging them to quiet down.
The Cologne event was where he started a major new WYD tradition: Instead of ending the vigil with a boisterous musical finale, he ended it with eucharistic adoration – with tens of thousands of young people kneeling silently in a field. The scene was repeated in Australia in 2008.
During World Youth Day 2011, scheduled for Aug. 16-21 in Madrid, eucharistic adoration again will cap the pope’s participation at the vigil. Adoration and prayer also will continue throughout the night on the edges of the military airport where many of the young people are expected to camp overnight.
In fact, organizers are planning to have 17 tents set up as chapels for all-night adoration.
The visual focal point when the pope leads the adoration and Benediction will be a monstrance set into a towering 16th-century gothic structure of silver and gold usually housed in the Toledo cathedral.
The traditional, solemn sense communicated by the Toledo monstrance will be echoed in the papal liturgies throughout the trip, organizers said.
“The point is to highlight that the central person of World Youth Day is Jesus Christ, and the pope is coming to proclaim him,” said Father Javier Cremades, Madrid coordinator of the liturgies.
However, not all of Father Cremades’ plans will emphasize the formal.
“We’ll wake the young people with mariachi music” the morning of Aug. 21, hours before the pope arrives to celebrate Mass at the Cuatro Vientos military airport, he said.
Young women and men will proclaim the Scripture readings at the Mass and read the prayers of the faithful; seminarians will fulfill the role of altar servers. Up to 6,000 singers, 25 years old and younger – members of choirs from around the world – will sing the hymns at the Mass.
Blessed John Paul was the pope with the reputation for rallying and energizing thousands of young Catholics and particularly for drawing energy from them.
But in a passage that sounds like he was surprised about the impact that the celebration had on him, Pope Benedict told an interviewer, “these youth days have actually turned out to be a genuine gift for me.”
In the book “Light of the World,” he told Peter Seewald that he was struck by the “intense joy” and “the spirit of recollection that, amazingly, pervades the actual World Youth Days themselves.”

by Antonina Zielinska

When World Youth Day pilgrims go to confession in Spain this August and kneel to kiss the stole of their confessor, they may come in contact with purple cloth hand stitched in Brooklyn.

The Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará Sisters, who reside in the contemplative monastery of St. Edith Stein, Flatlands, stitched 25 stoles that have already been shipped to Madrid as part of the “Just a Stitch Away” World Youth Day campaign. It took them half a year to complete the project, while maintaining their already busy work and prayer schedules.  Four sisters did the majority of the stitching before their mother superior came with another sister from Argentina.

“We took this as an extra sacrifice offered freely in order to help World Youth Day,” said Sister Annunciation, S.S.V.M., who worked on the project from the beginning. “We saw it as a little way, in addition to our prayers, to participate with our work to give praise and glory to God.”

Mother Superior Maria Del Redentor said the sisters will not be able to partake in the pilgrimage because they are a closed cloister but they already are keeping the pilgrims in their prayers.

“We know this will be an opportunity for young people to come in close contact with God,” she said. “Some may be inspired to give their life completely to God. So we pray that they may have the strength to hear their calling.”

It is the sisters’ concern for all the people of the world that brought them to this project. During Lent, the sisters have a tradition of sewing the baby Jesus a vestment related to a special intention they choose to pray for. This year they dressed him in traditional Spanish garments in honor of World Youth Day.

The sisters sent the World Youth Day committee a photo of their work.  In turn, they received information about the “Cozer y Cantar.” The project became part of the sisters’ celebration of the 25th anniversary of their community.

“We think this will be good to give as an offering to the Church in gratitude for being in this institute,” said Mother Superior Maria.

When the sisters sent their offering to Spain, they included a letter to Pope Benedict XVI.  The mother superior said the sisters are excited to have had this opportunity.  She pointed out that the pope will donate the stoles to new missions in poor regions of the world.