Cologne, 2005

Yesterday I received a book in the mail, one that I ordered just as much for the nostalgia as I did for the price ($3.00!!!):  God's Revolution: World Youth Day and Other Cologne Talks, by Pope Benedict XVI.  I went into the closet in my office to find the dusty accordion file with my World Youth Day mementos.  Unfortunately, the scrapbook that I intended to make is still in said accordion file... so here's a virtual scrapbook.  Or at least a page or two.

What a wonderful trip it was!  I made some great friends that have been an invaluable blessing in my life.  I experienced the universal Church in a unique way and the love of my faith grew.  I'm incredibly grateful to the Lord for the trip!

I traveled with the group from St. Rose Parish from Roseville, CA.  I was a seminarian at the time, and I actually didn't know anyone from the group.  My sister Kristy suggested I give her friend a call at St. Rose, and he welcomed me into their group.  It was a mix of youth, their chaperones, and young adults.

I flew over to Europe ahead of time with the chaplain of the group in the trip of a lifetime--Paris, Lisieux, Rheims, Prague, Vienna, and best of all: the village in Slovakia where my great-grandfather was born.  My good friend Fr. Avram and I saw and experienced not only the glories of Europe (and Czech beer) but holy sites, cathedrals, and the most beautiful stained glass windows I've seen in my life.  

The information guide, hymnal, lanyard, special
Magnificat for English-speaking folks,
and some surprisingly unused meal coupons

That's a post of its own, however; onto my scrapbook of Cologne.

Pope Benedict had just been elected to the papacy months before World Youth Day.  It only happened to coincide with WYD taking place in his homeland.  When the St. Rose group arrived in Cologne, there was a palpable excitement.  The city was teeming with youth.  The trains and train stations were crowded until 9 p.m.; I couldn't remember being around that many people or an event that size.

Just how big was it?  I read that 800,000 people attended Sunday Mass with the Pope; I was surprised the number was so low.  More on that in a minute.

The week leading up to the Papal Mass was packed with lots of activities.  The parishes in Cologne hosted catechetical sessions, with each parish hosting groups of certain languages.  I can't offer much of a review on them, since there must've been a bit of a snafu with our assigned parish.  We arrived at the catechetical session among an oddly large proportion of Italian groups.  Once the program started in Italian, we returned to the hotel for our own catechetical session.

One of the activities later in the week was the arrival of the pope.  He flew into somewhere and got on a boat, and took the boat down the river to Cologne.  We excitedly traveled to the soccer stadium for his reception; turns out the welcoming ceremony was only on the jumbotron at the stadium.  Eh.  Some spontaneous entertainment came about as youth from countries all over the world went down onto the covered field, running around with their country's flag in the air.

My ticket into the pope's audience with seminarians
and our group's assigned place in the field for the Papal Mass

The next highlight for me was a special audience with seminarians.  I obtained a letter from my diocese, saying that I was in good standing, etc.  And I got in!  It took place at a church named St. Pantaleon, in the courtyard.  I met seminarians from Slovakia and ran into other guys from my seminary.  My one regret from the day was focusing too much on taking pictures.  I was in prime position to see the pope as he walked in, and in between taking the picture (a hair too early, I might add) and checking to see how it came out, I completely missed seeing him walk in front of me.

The last thing I want to mention is about the candlelight vigil and the Papal Mass.  We walked for about an hour from the city out to a field big enough to handle a crowd of a million people.  There was music, praying, and Eucharistic adoration during the vigil.  I was taken aback when I stood up from our spot and looked around: in the darkness around me, there were lighted candles as far as I could see.  It was like a sea of light.  At that point, I felt a strong sense of community.  I was not alone!  That feeling continued the next day at the Papal mass: the Church that I was part of and the faith that I professed enveloped me; languages and cultures blended together in a single act of worship.  It was humbling, nourishing, and life-giving and I pray that I'll never forget it.

The St. Rose group ended up becoming my spiritual family for the first two years after I left the seminary.  Last year, I went to the wedding of one of the high school kids in the group.  I grew in so many ways on that World Youth Day trip... the most important one being loving my faith and my Church even more.  I pray that everyone who attended WYD last month will experience the same thing!