This week’s cover story about the cloistered Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará Sisters in Flatlands who sewed penitential stoles for the upcoming World Youth Day is the kickoff of our coverage of the historic event which will take place in Madrid, Spain, Aug. 16-21.
Between now and the opening ceremonies, The Tablet and The NET will be bringing you feature articles about our own delegates from Brooklyn and Queens. Individual parish delegations have been preparing for months as they raise funds to pay for their trips. They also have been preparing spiritually with days of recollection.
World Youth is a great social event but it is also a spiritual journey. Some of our local participants will be leaving earlier than their peers so that they can participate in the Camino or walk to Santiago, Spain and the Catheral of St. James there. This walk retraces the footsteps of St. James as he travelled to Spain to evangelize the first Christians there. A NET film group will be joining the group to tel their story to viewers back home.
Among those walking the historic pilgrimage will be Father Robert Keighron of St. Helen’s parish, Howard Beach, and Father James Kuroly of Cathedral Prep, Elmhurst.
Another group, from Holy Family parish, Flatlands, also will leave early for a pilgrimage to Rome under the direction of their pastor, Father John Amann.
All three active Brooklyn bishops are scheduled to be in Madrid. Tablet reporter Antonina Zielinska will be there to report and record on their interactions with our young people.
The film reports and photos will be broadcast as quickly as we can process on special editions of Currents, the daily news program seen on NET, Ch. 97 on Time-Warner and Ch. 30 on Cablevision.
Many First-Time Pilgrims
In all, about 350 young people and their chaperones will be representing Brooklyn and Queens at World Youth Day, which is expected to attract more than one million people.
Many of the local groups will be first-time participants in a WYD convocation. St. Sebastian’s, Woodside, is a new entry with about 30 young people. Also St. Leo’s and Our Lady of Sorrows, both Corona, and Mary, Queen of Heaven, Flatlands, and Transfiguration, Williamsburg, are sending pilgrims for the first time.
In addition, some of the old standbys will include St. Patrick’s, Bay Ridge; St. Gerard Majella, Hollis; and Holy Family, Flushing.
Father Gerard Sauer, diocesan director of pilgrims, is coordinating the logistics of the diocesan pilgrimage along with Paul Morisi, who coordinates young people’s ministries for the diocese’s Faith Formation Office.
There are also some groups travelling on their own — separate from the official diocesan delegation. They include youngsters from the Korean Apostolate, the Neo-Catechumenal Way, and a young Haitian group directed by Msgr. Joe Malagreca.
Of course, the highlight of World Youth Day will be the evening vigil and Mass the following day with Pope Benedict XVI. We will be bringing you these events, as well as others, live on The NET, with recaps each evening on Currents and in The Tablet.