Esta Es la Juventud del Papa

Well, World Youth Day proper has come to an end, and most of the pilgrims of the world, 16 of our pilgrims among them, have returned to their homes.  From all appearances, though, it has been a great success.

Following our troubles finding the location of the school where we would be staying in Madrid, things went more smoothly.  Our first day in the city found us exploring the Cathedral n which is buried St. Isodore the Farmer, and acclamating to big city life.  The pilgrims spent the day wandering around the area near the Cathedral while the priests and seminarians went to find the special credentials that they would need for the remainder of the pilgrimage.  That evening we attended the Mass of Welcome with the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid and about 400 thousand other people.  It was eeply moving to me to see wave upon wave of priests seated in the area reserved for us.  Because we arrived late, we were placed in a corral-like structure with little room and lots of sun.  Following Mass, the priests found our group in the mob of people and made the commute to our hosting school.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we attended Catechetical sessions hosted by a bishop from the phillipines, by Bishop Anthony Fisher, and by Archbishop Charles Chaput.  These prelates reminded our young people of the need to cling to the faith and to live and defend it publically.  They seemed genuinely inspired by the words of these bishops.

As we traveled the metros, we encountered a good deal of anger and resentment from locals.  The Church is widely hated here, even though th majority of the population is baptized.  This anger seems to date to the Spanish Civil War and the perception that the Church had alligned herself with Franco.  Our kids had the amazing opportunity to respond with love as protesters shouted at the priests on trains, and as our Blessed Mother was mocked while they sang the Salve Regina.  It was incredible.

On several occassions we had hoped to take time for adoration, and arrived at the place where it was to occur only to find that we were late or that it was in another location.  One evening, in deperation, we decided to take a long walk on our way to the last event of the vening, and to stop in small churches to pray along the way.  To our great relief, we happened upon a small church in an upper room where adoration was occuring.  We were stopped at the door by a priest telling us that we could not enter and that if we wanted to see the pope who would be driving down the street, we would need to do it from ground level.  The expression on his face was priceless as I explained that we did not know that the Pope would be drivving in that area of town, and that we simply wanted to pray.  He warmly welcomed us into his little chapel.

On Friday evening we celebrated the Stations of the Cross with the Holy Father.  The images of the stations were all staues used by various different pious goups within the city for the anual holy weeks processions.  Some of the images were centuries old.  Several hundred thousand people gathered for this event as well.  One of our pilgrims climbed a tree to see better, others clung to lamp posts, and most of us simply stood and were crushed.  We found more protesters, and in this case, refused to let them move past us in the crowd until they lowered their ridiculous signs.  That evening, thousands of people, awaiting the arrival of the Pope chanted, Esta es la juventud del Papa.  We are the young people of the Pope.  That chant would ring out again and again throughout the remainder of World Youth Day.

Saturday we made our way to the place where the papal vigil and Mass were to occur.  As with all world youth days, it had the appearance of a refugee camp, but with the added bonus of te hot, hot Spanish sun and not even a shadow in which to find some cool.  Our pilgrims were troopers, and when the Pope arrived around sundown, we were ready to pray with him.  It rained that evening, and though some beds nd blankets were a litte damp, none of our spirits were.

1.7 million people joined the Pope for Mass on Sunday morning.  It is the largest crowd ever to gather for B16.  After Mass we escaped the feild relatively quickly and went a occurpied a nice shady park until things settled down on the metro line.  After a few hours of waiting, we made our way to out last parish stay, cleaned up, and ate a marvelous dinner together.

That night we bid farewell to fourteen of our pilgrims, and then we slept.  It was a beautiful end to a hard, but fruitful pilgrimage.

The graces in Spain are still flowing, and I have much more to say, but i will try to do that this evening.  For now, all are safe and, though having enjoyed Spain, I think all are ready to return to our own country.  We will be home Friday night.

Nos vemos.  Adios.