July 5, 2008
Pilgrims to join thousands at World Youth Day
By Denise MacLachlan
Herald staff
Coadjutor Bishop Jaime Soto, above left, celebrates Mass at the Diocesan Pastoral Center June 21 with World Youth Day pilgrims from the diocese who are traveling to Sydney, Australia. Cathy Joyce/Herald photo
More than 80 pilgrims from the Diocese of Sacramento are headed for Australia to participate in World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney July 15-20.
Father Brian Atienza, director of vocations for the Diocese of Sacramento, will travel with a contingent of young adults over age 18 and chaperones from seven parishes in the diocese: St. Dominic in Colfax, St. Thomas in Oroville, St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine in Vallejo, St. Mary in Vacaville, Holy Rosary in Woodland, and the Newman Catholic Community in Sacramento.
Pilgrims from some parishes are traveling to Australia separately, as are some religious. Two members of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, will travel from their convent in Loomis to join a group of 52 members of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious who will help with liturgies and evangelization at World Youth Day.
Parish pilgrims spent one to two years fund raising to help pay for their journey. At St. Thomas Parish in Oroville, for example, five college students each made a deposit of $250 toward the pilgrimage. Then they raised $40,000 over two years to send themselves and five adult chaperones to the world event, including their former pastor, Father Benedict DeLeon, who became pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Redding in March.
Also traveling to Sydney on his third World Youth Day pilgrimage is Coadjutor Bishop Jaime Soto. He was a pilgrim at World Youth Days in Rome in 2000 and in Cologne, Germany in 2005.
As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ episcopal liaison to the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, and as a member of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on the Laity and its Subcommittee for Youth and Young Adults, Bishop Soto is particularly concerned with issues relating to young people.
At a June 21 Mass at the Diocesan Pastoral Center for pilgrims soon to leave for Sydney, Bishop Soto explained that their pilgrimage this year will be “apocalyptic” in “the second sense — in the sense of the coming together of the kingdom.”
“Given the fears that we have, given what we see in the world around us — war, famine, economic uncertainty — we journey with certainty to Sydney,” the bishop said. “In the midst of fear and hostility, we go with confidence and joy.”
In an interview after the Mass, Bishop Soto discussed the purpose of World Youth Day.
“World Youth Day is a religious pilgrimage,” he said. “It has a spiritual purpose. We hope the young people will provide a powerful protest against a world filled with division, neglect and deep hatreds.
“World Youth Day brings a different message. In a concrete way it brings to fruition the message of Pope Benedict’s first encyclical, ‘God is Love.’”
He continued, “Religion is often portrayed as a source of conflict. But the true nature of religion is revealing God’s love by making us messengers. The pilgrims bring a glimmer of hope for a world on the brink of despair.”
There will be Iraqi Christians at World Youth Day, the bishop noted, explaining that the Catholic Church in Australia, joined by many World Youth Day organizations and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has made it possible for Iraqi Catholics to participate in this year’s pilgrimage. “American Catholics and Iraqi Catholics will be together at World Youth Day,” he said.
“For the pilgrim, the journey is as important as the destination,” the bishop concluded. “We choose our companions and make a commitment to journey together. It is not a race. On a pilgrimage, we arrive together, acting in communion, in solidarity. Competition drives the race. Companionship drives the pilgrimage.”
