World Youth Day gives the world a glimpse of the living Church

by Hector Welgampola

SYDNEY (UCAN): Bubbly young people from around the globe have sizzled wintry Sydney into an early springtime with their joyous chatter, raucous singing and infectious good cheer.
The thousands, hundreds of thousands, who came offered a spectacle of youthful joy and faith, despite the “same old, same old” caveats of some senior Sydneysiders. Volunteers eagerly provided hot soup and warm clothes to young Asians arriving unprepared for the Australian winter. Such pampering reflects the overprotective efforts to make World Youth Day an organisational success. As young people moved around the city, some were amused by patronising announcements at train and bus stations and by the overkill of ushers huddling them onward.
Young Asians from hassled minority Churches were curious about an anti-nuisance law to “save them” from anti-pope protesters, condom-peddlers and pro-abortionists. A young Indian shrugged his shoulders on reading the July 15 court order against the law.
If youthful love blossoms in the nippy atmosphere as is natural at any youth meet, what the Australian Telegraph described as the Catholic World Cup, lacked what the newspaper editorial called “the negatives of the World Cup.”
Smiling radiantly, Anne from Taiwan, asserted she valued the opportunity to come together as a world assembly of prayer the most. Adam, another Taiwanese, nodded in assent. Young people’s eagerness for prayer and music was quite evident.
All sessions for adoration and reconciliation were booked way in advance of the July 15 to 20 prayer rally, as were the musical programmes (although actual attendance waned). Besides some 50 official events, the momentum also featured more than 100 exhibits as well as numerous contemplative prayer sessions and discussion groups led by Church movements and agencies.
Meditation groups, social-action groups and peace activists have been vying equally to draw young Asians. Yet, the estimated, more than 12,300 Asians were spread thin within the sea of youthful faces and voices.
They became more articulate when Chinese, Filipinos, Indians, Indonesians, Japanese, Koreans and Vietnamese met separately as national groups with bishops and chaplains who accompanied them.
On July 16, some also attended the Asian Youth Gathering (AYG), though the polyglot gathering could produce little more than local song and dance performances, perhaps due to language limitations. In addition to the official song, an Australian official national song, Waltzing Matilda, was the only other one most Asians could sing together! They apparently came prepared for little else.
Some people from Taiwan and elsewhere went out shopping after finding the AYG too noisome. Others from places such as Timor Leste stayed behind because, as they said, their weak currencies kept them from buying even basic souvenirs.
Serious-minded young people considered the session a wasted night, but some found hope in the presence of forward-looking leaders of Asian chapters of youth movements such as International Young Christian Students (IYCS) and International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS).
Paris-based Loucille of IYCS, and Manila-based Bipul of IMCS Asia-Pacific, came to Youth Day hoping to tap youthful energies to build a better world as cited also in Pope Benedict XVI’s call to participants.
The pope’s visit confused the agenda, but he kept a healthy, low profile amid the media hysteria before and after he came. Some local Catholics said primacy should have been given to young people and their prayer event over the papal presence. Had that been the case, would advocacy groups and media lobbies have been discouraged from using a prayer event to lobby for women’s ordination or against child abuse?
Some young people, who asked not to be named, said these painful issues offer a scenario to reflect on the Church’s human face. But at least one young Korean said such lobbies made the pope’s presence a distraction.
That comment prompted me to ask a Filipino university student if he could visualise a World Youth Day without the pope. Gerry, a Sydney resident, promptly replied, “Oh, no, we’re very keen to attend Mass by the Holy Father. He is our rallying point.” Those words affirmed two of the three traditional pillars of the faith of Asian Catholics: love of the Eucharist and loyalty to the Holy See. The third is Marian devotion.
The week gave young Asians momentary exposure to the Church’s universality. The massive togetherness amid much diversity offered strength and hope to live the minority status in their home countries.
If togetherness also offers time for fun and friendship, many others want more than a good time. All the fervour, fun and frustrations of Asians at the World Youth Day present a mosaic of the living Church.

Hector Welgampola, a Sri Lankan journalist, was executive editor of UCA News from 1987 until he retired in December 2001.

 

An aerial view showing Pope Benedict XVI in the popemobile at Royal Randwick Racecourse for the final Mass of World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Australia,on July 20.
Photo: CNS/courtesy of World Youth Day 2008