By Ana Rodriguez Soto - Florida Catholic newspaper
Mary Ann Wiesinger, director of the archdiocesan Office of Evangelization and Parish Life, welcomes World Youth Day pilgrim Erick Frederick, of San Isidro Parish in Pompano, to St. Mary Cathedral for the send-off Mass.
World Youth Day pilgrims hold up letters spelling out Archdiocese of Miami for the social media video challenge.
Tracy Dominique, a World Youth Day pilgrim from St. Mary Cathedral and valedictorian of the class of 2016 at Archbishop Curley Notre Dame Prep, proclaims the first reading.
Paolo Benigni, a World Youth Day pilgrim with the Neocatechumenal Way group, proclaims the second reading.
Bishop Peter Baldacchino preaches the homily at the World Youth Day pilgrims send-off Mass.
A World Youth Day pilgrim from Encuentros Juveniles takes up the offertory, which included the prayer book where archdiocesan employees and visitors have been writing their intentions for the past few weeks.
World Youth Day pilgrims from St. Ann Mission in Homestead stand to receive the send-off blessing from Bishop Peter Baldacchino.
World Youth Day pilgrims from SEPI, the Southeast Regional Office for Hispanics, stand to receive the send-off blessing from Bishop Peter Baldacchino.
Bishop Peter Baldacchino blesses the pilgrim crosses he and other priests would give to World Youth Day pilgrims at the end of the send-off Mass.
Rosemarie Banich, director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, leads the congregation in saying the World Youth Day prayer for U.S. pilgrims.
Bishop Peter Baldacchino distributes pilgrim crosses to World Youth Day pilgrims from throughout the Archdiocese of Miami.
Father Bryan Garcia, parochial vicar at St. Andrew in Coral Springs and one of four priest-chaplains on the official archdiocesan pilgrimage to World Youth Day, distributes pilgrim crosses to World Youth Day pilgrims from throughout the Archdiocese of Miami.
World Youth Day pilgrims from throughout the Archdiocese of Miami received these pilgrim crosses from Bishop Peter Baldacchino.
World Youth Day pilgrims prepare to shoot a video to the tune of "World Youth Day is back for you," in response to a social media challenge from the Polish organizing committee.
World Youth Day pilgrim Adrian Garza of St. Ann Mission in Homestead wore a dress-up jacket over his official archdiocesan T-shirt.
World Youth Day pilgrims from St. Augustine Church and Student Center in Coral Gables chat after the send-off Mass.
World Youth Day pilgrims Paola Moreno and Jiovanny Gonzalez, of St. Augustine Church and Student Center in Coral Gables, add a Miami-special salsa-dancing moment while shooting a video to the tune of "World Youth Day is back for you," in response to a social media
Videographer Javier Carrion films World Youth Day pilgrims as they add a Miami-special salsa-dancing moment while shooting a video to the tune of "World Youth Day is back for you." The video is a response to a social media challenge from the Polish organizing committee.
Photography: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
MIAMI | Challenge met. Party started. Get ready, Krakow: Miami’s on its way.
But before flying off to Poland for World Youth Day 2016, nearly 300 of South Florida’s pilgrims celebrated Sunday Mass together at St. Mary Cathedral.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Father Bryan Garcia, parochial vicar at St. Andrew in Coral Springs and one of four priest-chaplains on the official archdiocesan pilgrimage to World Youth Day, distributes pilgrim crosses to World Youth Day pilgrims from throughout the Archdiocese of Miami.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
World Youth Day pilgrims from throughout the Archdiocese of Miami received these pilgrim crosses from Bishop Peter Baldacchino.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
World Youth Day pilgrims from St. Augustine Church and Student Center in Coral Gables chat after the send-off Mass.
They received some words of wisdom, a send-off blessing and a pilgrim’s cross from Auxiliary Bishop Peter Baldacchino. And they recorded a markedly Miamian music video in response to a social media challenge from the World Youth Day organizing committee in Poland. (Watch it here.)
The teens, young adults and young-at-heart chaperones who will represent the Archdiocese of Miami to fellow Catholics from around the globe included members of the 115-strong official archdiocesan pilgrimage; a good number of the 200-strong Neocatechumenal Way group; seminarians; Spanish-speaking young adults traveling with SEPI, the U.S. bishops’ Southeast Regional Office for Hispanic Ministry; and handfuls of young people representing parishes such as St. Augustine Church and Student Center in Coral Gables and St. John XXIII in Miramar.
World Youth Day — which actually lasts from July 25-31 — is the world’s largest Catholic youth fest. It takes place every two or three years. The last one was in Rio de Janeiro in 2013.
St. John Paul II started World Youth Day in 1985, so Krakow is a coming-home of sorts for the event: It is where the future pope was born. It is also the site of the Divine Mercy devotion he championed, a fitting locale during this extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Pope Francis will join the world’s youths for an evening Stations of the Cross on Wednesday, July 27; a prayer vigil on Saturday, July 30; and a closing Mass on Sunday, July 31.
Archbishop Thomas Wenski also will join the Miami pilgrims, celebrating Mass for them Sunday, July 24, at Jasna Gora, before the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa; Monday, July 25, at St. Ann Church in Krakow; and Saturday, July 30 at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Krakow.
Archbishop Wenski is also one of the 13 U.S. bishops who will lead English-language catechesis Wednesday through Friday mornings in Krakow.
Before the official beginning of World Youth Day, Miami pilgrims will tour Auschwitz and make a “Pilgrimage of Mercy” to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary and JPII Center. Afterward, they will “debrief” and reflect amid the mountains at Zakopane, where John Paul II loved to hike with the young adults of his day.
The pilgrims will spend their last day in Europe doing a little sightseeing in Vienna, Austria, before flying back to Miami Aug. 3.
And while there will be time for sightseeing and enjoying cultural events during their stay in Krakow, the stress is on the word pilgrim, Bishop Baldacchino reminded his listeners at the July 17 send-off Mass.
“We are setting out on a pilgrimage to listen to the word of God. To listen to his will, not ours,” said the bishop, noting that he himself will be traveling as a pilgrim — not just as a bishop — with the Neocatechumenal Way group.
“A pilgrim is dead to the world. He does not own anything any longer. A pilgrim experiences what God provides,” Bishop Baldacchino said. “A pilgrim recognizes the presence of God in every event.”
But pilgrims are not just the young people going to World Youth Day, he noted. Every Christian on earth is a pilgrim. “We are in exile on this earth. We are only passing through. We are ambassadors of our heavenly homeland. Our permanent dwelling place is in heaven.”
Bishop Baldacchino urged all those setting out for Poland to view their pilgrimage as a “condensed RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults), a catechumenate, a post-baptismal catechumenate.”
If you do that well, he promised, when you return “you will no longer be the same person as when you started the pilgrimage.”
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
World Youth Day pilgrims prepare to shoot a video to the tune of "World Youth Day is back for you," in response to a social media challenge from the Polish organizing committee.
