WYD Closing Recap (Days 9-11)

All hands are in for a cheer prior to heading back to gather their gear for the pilgrim walk to Randwick Racecourse on July 19.

(Herald photo by Bill Howard)

The Mass for U.S. pilgrims celebrated by U.S. bishops in attendance at World Youth Day July 19 at The Domain park.

(Herald photo by Bill Howard)

Bishop Michael Sheridan mingles with pilgrims from Ave Maria Parish in Parker after the Mass for U.S. pilgrims July 19 in Sydney. (Herald photo by Bill Howard)

Pilgrims go to confession at and pray in the adoration chapel at Randwick Racecourse prior to the papal vigil July 19 at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney. (Herald photo by Bill Howard)

Colorado Springs and Las Vegas pilgrims pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet after setting up their sleeping bags at Randwick Racecourse July 19 in Sydney. (Herald photo by Bill Howard)

A candle shrine develops along the railing by the Colorado Springs/Las Vegas pilgrim group's camping site before the papal vigil begins July 19 at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Sanborn)

Sorry for the lack of blogging during what was essentially the climax of World Youth Day for everyone there... the vigil and closing Mass at Randwick Racecourse. I'll try to encapsulate those days over a few posts with some pictures.

SATURDAY, JULY 19

We began our morning by marching up to The Domain, a park near St. Mary's Cathedral where our pilgrimage group saw the popemobile the previous night. The U.S. bishops in attendance wanted to have a special celebration of the Mass for U.S. pilgrims, and there were several thousand people in attendance. After the Mass, we headed to our hotel to get ready for the pilgrim walk to Randwick Racecourse for the evening vigil and closing Mass tomorrow.

Our hotel was situated right along the pilgrim route, so it was great to strap on our packs and just melt our group in with the massive, flowing river of people. Also in front of our hotel was a little clearing space between streets and a marching band from China had set up in their blue outfits to play for all of the pilgrims as they marched by. You can hear a snippet of what they were playing here. They were also promoting a non-profit organization trying to call attention to human rights abuses in that country. Several members of the group were lined up along the route passing out pamphlets.

It's a good thing we live in Colorado, because the march to Randwick was full of steep climbs on some of the streets. Trying to have a group of 80 pilgrims from different ages keep up together was a challenge that Father Carmody tackled. Holding up the group mascot, Wilson the volleyball (everyone else had flags... we had Wilson), the group would reconvene for a quick rest every 5-10 minutes.

The camaraderie on the walk was great... everyone just having a good time, singing and meeting pilgrims from other countries. Those who have been to previous World Youth Days know what I mean. It took us about 90 minutes to get to Randwick, where we already had our camping spot preselected. It was an OK location... we were in the middle of the action, but we did not have a clear view of the stage, which was directly in front of us a few football fields away. We could see most of it, but the area with the altar and pope's chair was blocked by tents and scaffolding. The nearest jumbotron was also partially obstructed, so the group had to listen. Some brought radios that gave them a clearer sound rather than rely on the echoing speakers. Still, it was an impressive sight to see 400,000 people filing into this enormous place. What I didn't know before arriving there was that we were treading on sacred ground. At that very site, Pope Paul VI celebrated Mass when he was the first pope to visit Australia in 1970. Also, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass there twice -- first during a visit in 1986 and then again for Blessed Mary McKillop's beatification Mass in 1995.

The vigil itself was awesome... maybe my favorite event of the entire week. As the sun set and temperatures cooled down to the 40s, candles were lit across the racecourse. By then, I had made a move over to the media section about 200 meters to the left of the stage so that I could get better pictures. I was about six rows up out of 12 rows in the media tribune area, and I was able to get an amazing view of the racetrack lit up with hundreds of thousands of candles by the time the pope arrived. Whenever the program called for a song, you saw many of those candles swaying back and forth in different directions.

One neat side note, behind the media area was a sliver of general access ground for pilgrims, and out there was a large eucharistic adoration tent (with priests on hand for confession, too) set up by the Missionaries of Charity. They were also lined up outside the tent handing out little pictures of their founder, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, as well as Blessed Teresa medals and miraculous medals. One nun scooped up a bunch and poured them into my hand, which was a very kind gesture. The tent was heated with gas lamps so it was hard to find a place to pray with some people praying and others trying to crash in the heated tent and sleep in front of Our Lord. But that was the first time in the entire week when I felt I really had been able to let go of everything -- the stresses of getting from one place to another, the stresses of making sure I got what I wanted for the Herald, etc... -- and just feel some solitary peace with Our Lord. After about 20 minutes, I had to venture back up to the media area for the start of the vigil.

The pope's message was very powerful. He has such a firm, gentle speaking style that I hope many seek out the text of what he said (with his strong German accent, some of it was heard to hear through the massive speaker system). He called the world we live in "divided" and "fragmented" by relativism and tainted with a "short-sighted" way of thinking that pushes God out of the picture when trying to discern just what the "truth" is that we should seek. He addressed those who would say the Catholic Church cannot be a professor of truth due to the sins of its members (which subtly addressed the abuse of children by a minority of priests over the past few decades) and those who ignore the teachings and traditions of the church and try to create a Catholic Church in their own image and desires (read: cafeteria Catholicism).

... In the face of imperfections and disappointments -- both individual and institutional -- we are sometimes tempted to construct artificially a "perfect" community. That temptation is not new. The history of the Church includes many examples of attempts to bypass or override human weaknesses or failures in order to create a perfect unity, a spiritual utopia. Such attempts to construct unity in fact undermine it! To separate the Holy Spirit from Christ present in the Church's institutional structure would compromise the unity of the Christian community, which is precisely the Spirit's gift! It would betray the nature of the church as the living temple of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Father has mentioned several times in his visit the importance of having parents and grandparents as role models in the faith and in life. He touched on that again today, no doubt also challenging the older pilgrims (of which there were many) to shape up their ships before they can help lead their younger ones. At the end of his vigil message, Pope Benedict challenged the youth to make a concerted effort to see the Holy Spirit at work in their lives and in others' lives.

Just as the Church travels the same journey with all humanity, so too you are called to exercise the Spirit's gifts amidst the ups and downs of your daily life. Let your faith mature through your studies, work, sport, music and art. Let it be sustained by prayer and nurtured by the sacraments, and thus be a source of inspiration and help to those around you. In the end, life is not about accumulation. it is much more than success. To be truly alive is to be transformed from within, open to the energy of God's love. In accepting the power of the Holy Spirit, you too can transform your families, communities and nations. Set free the gifts! Let wisdom, courage, awe and reverence be the marks of greatness!

The vigil closed with about 20 minutes of adoration and benediction. I must say this was the highlight of the night. To see the pope kneeling in adoration in front of a candle-lit, dead-silent crowd of 400,000 is really hard to put into words. Because I had a lot of equipment with me and I didn't want to risk leaving it out overnight (with a slight chance of showers in the forecast), I took a bus back to our hotel. While that was taking place, our awesome Colorado Springs and Las Vegas pilgrims were busy building a shrine of sorts with all of their candles. What started out as a few candles bunched together turned into an enormous row of candles, drawing the interest and adoration of lots of other pilgrims -- and some media, too.

SUNDAY, JULY 20

The pope did a flyover of the scene via helicopter around 8:45 a.m. and then touched down after about 20-30 minutes so that he could get into the popemobile and make some rounds of the Randwick gathering. The popemobile did not travel as far back as where our group was situated, but it was a massive place so it is understandable that he could only move around the front area before needing to get ready for Mass.

The pope was visibly energized during the Mass and one could only imagine what was going through the hearts of the 20 young adults who were confirmed by the Holy Father during Mass. I thought it was awesome to focus on confirmation because for many Catholics, I think it is an overlooked part of one's spiritual life. I wish I could say I remember much about my confirmation, but I don't. I vaguely saw it as I should... as a time when, as an adult, we mature in our understanding of the gifts we received at baptism and have a renewed fire to be Christ to others in the world. Seeing this confirmation take place at the closing Mass served as a visible example of what we have been reflecting on all week as regards the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It caused us to revisit our own confirmations. Essentially the Holy Father was saying, if we didn't take ours very seriously then we could start now.

After Mass, the pope recited the Angelus with the crowd and gave his weekly Angelus message. He then announced that the next World Youth Day will be in Madrid, Spain, in 2011. After that, he said goodbye and hopped into a car to head back to St. Mary's Cathedral, where he has been staying. Then began the task of getting out of Randwick. It took us about an hour to get organized and through the gate back onto the streets. Once we got past the initial bottleneck near the racecourse, we made great time getting back to the hotel... just under an hour. Everyone darted to their rooms for showers and rest before heading out to dinner. I, Chuck Maher and his son Evan chose to use that time by hopping back on the city train and heading out to Olympic Park (about 20 minutes outside Sydney proper) to catch a National Rugby League (their main pro league) matchup between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Wests Storm. While I have loved being immersed in all things World Youth Day, I desperately wanted to see a pro rugby game and this was one of two chances (the other being a game in nearby Manly Island the previous night). Loved the Rabbitohs name and their uniform (green and red stripes) but they were no match for the larger Wests team, which beat them up pretty good. Pilgrims were allowed in for free, so it there was a crowd of nearly 22,000 there, making for a great atmosphere.

MONDAY, July 21

Today was a free day and our contingent dispersed to do various things -- visit the Sydney Opera House, take the Manly ferry, tour St. Mary's Cathedral, grab some souvenirs, possibly see "The Dark Knight" at the nearby IMAX theater, or just walk around downtown Sydney. It was a but sad that a lot of things were already being dissambled. The merchandise tents (which I admit had a lot of cool things, from sharp scarves and winter hats to a funny Benedetto-16 rugby shirt) were already shut down and disassembled. and all of the other tents that had been brimming with pilgrims either going to confession or getting food were also shut down and empty. It was much quieter, which began to finally drive home the reality in our group that our amazing time here was coming to an end. There were still quite a few pilgrims that remained for an extra day as we did, so it wasn't totally dead. You still heard the ocassional pilgrim group march by singing and playing guitars and drums, which warmed the heart on what was the coldest, most overcast day of the pilgrimage.

The only scheduled item was that we all met for dinner at 6:30 p.m. at a restaurant in the harbor. Regrettably, this was the best chance to get a group picture with the bishops (they weren't in the picture we took a few days earlier) but nobody remembered. I think everyone was just exhausted from an intense week. A light rain settled on us as we left the restaurant, causing us to pause and thank God that He gave us such beautiful weather throughout the week (and especially in the overnight vigil campout). We've been encouraged to go to bed ASAP since we have to be on the bus to go to the airport at 5 a.m. Then it's a 10-hour flight to Seoul, another 11-hour flight to Los Angeles and a final 2-hour flight to Los Angeles, with a couple of hours in between each to get through customs and to recheck our luggage at L.A. It's going to be a loooooong day, but I think the high from this week will carry us home. The Colorado Springs-Las Vegas group has been a lot of fun to be around. Oh yeah, tomorrow is also going to be the birthday of David Hall, the Ave Maria youth minister. He's going to a get 30-plus hour birthday... very cool.