world youth day ’08 and 1995

World Youth Day is a youth-oriented Roman Catholic Church promotional event. While the event itself celebrates the Catholic faith, young people are invited without discrimination.^[1] World Youth Day is not associated with International Youth Day or any of the international observance days.

(from wikipedia)

world youth day (WYD) is held once every 2 years. this year (WYD 2008) it is in sydney, australia and started on 15 july and will end on 20 july, where on 19 july, the youth will be having an  overnight vigil at a park.

well, for those youth who will not be able to make it to sydney, the penang diocese is organising its own WYD…. known as of course ‘peanng diocese youth day’ (PDYD). it will be held on 23 august at the church of our lady of lourdes, silibin, ipoh.

tonight, 19 july, where the pilgirms at WYD in sydney will be having a vigil, the youth in penang will also be having its own vigil – at the church of our lady of sorrows, the parish i belongs to. it will start at 11.00pm and ends at 6.30am the following day, 20 july. i will be there… well of course not as a participant since i’m no longer a youth! (the age limit is 35. yeah yeah i’m over 35 already). i’ll be there as a reporter… or at the same time as a helper, see where they need help.

coming back to WYD, you know, i was a participant in the WYD 1995, where it was held at manila, philippines. at that time, the pope was the late pope john paul II, and the gathering there was said to hold the record of the largest papal gathering ever. i was proud to be one of the statistics of the millions of pilgrims there!

i went under our penang diocese… think about 15 of us. there were other malaysians too of course under other diocese or churches. we stay at the classrooms of a manila university (sleeping on the classroom plank floor with our sleeping bags).

oh yeah i managed to see the pope twice… but at a far distant. the first time was when his ‘popemobile’ was passing through… so it was just a quick glimpse. the second time i saw him at the verandah of where he was staying. we were returning from an event to our lodging place, when we had to pass by where the pope stayed. just as we passed by, we heard the pope would be out at the verandah any time, so we waited. of course there were many other youth already there waiting to catch a glimpse of them. i noticed some had stools with them to stand on it so that they had a better view. when the pope came out to the verandah, everybody was shouting excitedly and waving to him. i was standing near a lady who was on a stool. i kept jumping up and down, mumbling "i can’t see him! i can’t see him!". i think the lady on the stool must had pity me because she got down from the stool and let me stand on the stool. ah at least i have a better view.

the best time of WYD 1995 was of course during the vigil. i think the event plus mass was held at the jose rizal park. since there were so many of us (millions, remember!) of course not all could get in the park. we had to be outside of the park… on the road. we camped right on the road! even so, the roads were not completely blocked off. once in a while a bus wanted to pass by (carrying pilgrims) and we all had to get up, push our sleeping bags or sleeping mats away. then off to sitting down or sleeping for some until someone shouted again "bus! bus! move! move!" and again we had to move. it was fun in a way.

another fun part was when we waved our malaysian flag around and chanted "john paul II, we love you! john paul II, we love you" each time we thought he was coming. we made the chants into music like!

many of us did not had anything to eat during the vigil and it was nice to know that towards the early morning, there were some kind samaritans who brought some food and drinks for us. they were just bread which we broke off some pieces and passed around to share.

i was lucky to be able to join in an internationally world famous event… and i had a kind soul to thank – the one who sponsored my trip. if not, i myself wouldn’t have the means to pay for the trip. i didn’t know who was the kind soul… he or she sponsored me via my parish priest. when i asked my parish priest to tell me who was the donor so that i could thank her/him, my parish priest refused to tell me the identity of the donor but said "thank god will be enough."  oh yeah during that time, my then boss, knowing me wanting to go for the WYD, gave me some money to spend too! indeed, i was lucky and indeed had god to thank for all that!

(note: after googling for pope, you’ll notice most of the resutls that came out had to do with the WYD 2008. some might be onf interest for reading, like the pope’s message calling for all faith to unite against voilence, which was also mentioned in our local paper, like the sun.)

above picture shows….