Experiencing World Youth Days

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

World Youth Day isn’t finished for a teenager and a youth minister from the Worcester Diocese. At least their responses to it aren’t.
Stephanie Walsh, a 17-year-old from St. Paul Parish in Warren, came back from the Jan. 22-27 gathering in Panama wanting to learn more and to start a youth group.
Matthew J. Hart, youth ministry coordinator for middle school and high school at St. John Paul II Parish in Southbridge, hopes to follow up with pilgrims he took to this World Youth Day and get their help to interest others in the next WYD in Portugal in 2022.
“I think it is an experience that everyone should experience in their lifetime,” Stephanie said. “I think that the energy and the life in all of the youth is amazing to see.” It’s like at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., but the marchers aren’t all Catholic.
At WYD “being with so many other Catholics was amazing,” she said. “You don’t realize how many other ones are out there until you’re there with them.”
Nor would she have guessed that she could connect with people of other cultures, whose languages she doesn’t speak.
“I could connect with them because I know they’re there for the same purpose,” she said. Sometimes they communicated by giving each other souvenirs, like a cross or prayer card.
“It all began over a year ago,” Mr. Hart said. “I wanted to bring a group from our parish to Panama, with the hope that the people who went would be ignited and bring back World Youth Day spirit to the parish.” He coordinated the only group he knew of from the Worcester Diocese, which went with pilgrims from the Boston Archdiocese, he said.
He first contacted Kelly Walsh, an older sister of Stephanie’s, who had been his student some years ago, he said. He said she’d attended World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011.
She and he were the only ones in their group of nine who’d been to a previous World Youth Day, he said. (He went to Denver in 1993, and Manila in 1995.)
Their group included St. John Paul II Parish’s associate pastor, Father Juan G. Herrera; their seminarian Julio Granados, young adults, teenagers and one teen’s mother.
A highlight of World Youth Days, started by Pope John Paul II in the 1980s and held internationally every few years, is a visit from the pope. Stephanie said she wasn’t too far from the stage, but couldn’t see Pope Francis clearly; she saw him on a large screen.
What was her impression?
“Our pope, this man who’s leading our Church … he knew exactly what he was doing,” she replied. “He knew why he was there.” She said her impression in the past was that he knows how to connect with young people.
“This was one of his greatest opportunities to teach us about our faith,” she said. “He was right there telling us.” They weren’t hearing or reading about it through the media.
WYD “made my faith stronger, especially hearing all the speakers and all the singers, listening, learning what our faith is about,” Stephanie said. “Coming home I wanted to start reading more books,” and learning more about the faith.
“You experience that one week of being on fire with your faith,” she said. “It feels like there should be something more present in our lives. … I feel like it should be an ongoing thing.”
Recently she talked with friends about starting a youth group for Catholics from any parish, and found excitement that matched her own, she said.
Mr. Hart said he thought the WYD theme, about the Blessed Mother’s “yes” to God, was powerful.
“I think that’s the challenge for us today, to say ‘yes’ to God – in school … in the grocery store … with people you  don’t like, with people you do like … give witness to the joy that’s in you,” he said. “That’s not contingent upon whether you had a good night of sleep,” or whether people like you.
He said he thinks it’s particularly hard for young people today.
“You want to fit in, you want to be liked,” he explained. “It’s super challenging to be a Christian today. I think few people have embraced the Gospel.… We need … strong and powerful voices today, through actions – loving your neighbor, forgiving. … Do you pray for your enemies?”
Did WYD help with all this?
That remains to be seen, Mr. Hart said. He said his role is to stay connected with group members, and he hopes to meet with them during Lent and ask them what they brought back from WYD.
Asked what he brought back, he said, “I’m still reflecting, I guess. … You could go down and have this great high and come back … and you’re faced with the challenge.”
He said maybe the question they all need to ask is, “What does God want me to do with that experience of World Youth Day?”
It’s hard for people who didn’t go to understand, he said. They can look at photos participants post on Facebook and say it must have been great, and everyone looked so happy.
“There’s a certain amount of sacrifice,” Mr. Hart said. “You don’t get much sleep. You might miss meals. … We experienced camping out in the dust … You realize you’re there to pray. … I think with the sacrifice … maybe you can be in touch with what’s most important, like the joy of the Gospel, the love of Christ in your heart.”
Asked what the benefit of taking pilgrims is, Mr. Hart replied, “To inspire them to live an authentic Christian life, to help them have a real encounter with our Lord.”
Did he see that happen?
“I saw it happen with me,” he responded.
“It affected the group very positively,” he said. “It was energizing. People were able to experience the beauty of our belonging to the Catholic faith.”