Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Gerard O’ConnellAugust 01, 2016

Six thousand young Argentinians came to Krakow for the World Youth Day, and among them was a high school student from Buenos Aires, Paula (‘Poli) Piqué, who had traveled to Rio de Janeiro to participate in the first World Youth Day led by Pope Francis.

She returned home so “spiritually energized and excited” from that international gathering, which brought together four million young people from all continents, that she has decided to attend this W.Y.D. in Krakow, Poland, because, she told America, “I want to live that experience again.”   

This time, however, Poli, a 19-year-old student of social communications at Austral University in Buenos Aires, brought two others with her: her twin sister Isabella (‘Isa’) and a very close friend, Alexia. (Poli and her twin sister are nieces of my wife, Elisabetta Piqué.) They were so captivated by what she told them about her experience in Rio that they decided to come with her to Poland in the hope of experiencing similar “spiritual feelings.”

A recent survey has shown that most young people (ages 14-35) come to W.Y.D. to be with Jesus and with the pope. Poli and her friends fit the pattern. She came to Krakow, she said, because in Rio she “felt the presence of God” and was inspired by “the presence of Pope Francis” and by “being with millions of young Catholics from so many different countries.”

She confided: “Rio changed my way of seeing things. I feel the presence of God in my life. I feel the desire to go on mission and ‘shake things up’ (Hagan lio!), as Francis told us.” When she returned home from Rio she “went on mission” talking about Jesus to people in other parts of Argentina who knew little about him.  

Poli, Isabella and Alexia told me, when I met them in Krakow, that they experienced similar “spiritual feelings” here to what Poli had felt in Rio as they mixed and interacted with many of the 1.5 million young people from 187 countries in the various events—catechesis, prayers and the big events with the pope: the opening ceremony, the Way of the Cross, the prayer vigil, sleeping overnight after the vigil in the Mercy Field (Campus Misericordiae) and then the closing Mass. The experienced a “tsunami” of emotions and were sad to leave at the end.  

All three have come from Buenos Aires as part of a larger group from the Schoenstatt movement in Argentina and Chile. They are not members of this Marian renewal movement, which was founded in Germany in 1914, but they are close to it and joined this pilgrimage to W.Y.D. that it organized. Before coming to Krakow, they visited the holy sites in Rome and Assisi as well as the headquarters of the movement in Germany.  

They were overjoyed to be with Pope Francis because, Poli said, expressing their shared view, “He is Argentinian like us, we connect better with him, we understand him better. He inspires us.”

Alexia de Bary, 18, a psychology student at El Salvador University in Buenos Aires, said she has came because of what Paula had told her about Rio.” She said, “My religion is very important to me and very present in my life.” She has gone on a number of retreats and done some missionary work, “speaking about Jesus” in places where they know little about him. She also visits one of the city’s shantytowns.

She was particularly delighted to be at this W.Y.D. with the pope and other teenage Catholics from different countries who share the same faith, particularly, she said, since so many teenagers even back in Argentina focus on other things in their lives. “I feel this W.Y.D. is a very good thing for me; it helped me to connect with God and share my culture and religion with other young people.” She considers it “very significant” that the pope is Argentinian and added, “I know that more teenagers than before focus on God and religion since Bergoglio became pope.”

Isabella, Paula’s twin sister, studies psychology like Alexia but at the Austral University. She decided to come to this W.Y.D. because she saw her sister “so happy and energized” after the “wonderful” Rio experience. She rated this experience as “both necessary and important,” and said she now feels particularly strengthened in her faith “through my meeting with so many other young people that believe in God and share the same values and religion like me.”

Isa, her sister and Alexia are all inspired by “the humility and sensitivity” of Pope Francis, and his concern for the poor. They said he has taught them that “having less is not the worst thing in life” and that “being rich is not what makes you happy.”

“Here in Krakow he has challenged us to build our relationship with Jesus, and as he said at Mass today to have courage to overcome evil with good by loving everyone, even our enemies. He gives us hope that we can make a difference in the world. And that makes us happy!” 

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Crystal Watson
7 years 8 months ago
*** Pope Francis Is Bringing Young People Back to God *** Well, religiously traditional, financially well-off young people, anyway. A few years ago Cathleen Kaveny wrote a post at Commonweal about the cost and conservatism of WYD ... "World Youth Day--Money and Manna" ... https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/world-youth-day-money-and-manna
Reyanna Rice
7 years 8 months ago
I have watched full coverage of the last two WYD events. I did not note particularly "religiously traditional" kids predominating. Yes, you will see a lot of kids with rosaries around their necks or hands. But you seldom see them fingering the beads as in praying with them. Nor do you see many at all falling to their knees to recieve Communion. These are things that in my mind would mark them as "religiously traditional". I suspect, like this article noted, a lot of them are attracted to go by friends but they themselves may not be religious to much extent. You see a lot of kids who do not actively participate in the liturgy as if they are not sure what to do. Frankly, I think a lot of them are there for the spectacle and, a good time and to catch a glimpse of the pope. As to most of them being well off, the majority are sponsored by their dioceses or group affiliations. They have to come up with some money but the rest is a "scholarship". I don't think one can generalize this broadly about the cohort of kids attending. Also as to expenses to the history country, I know that in 2013 PF donated a tidy chunk of money to Brazil and I would suspect the same this year to Poland.
Crystal Watson
7 years 8 months ago
$4,000 a person is a lot to spend just to enjoy a spectacle. One can imagine how many poor people that cash could help, if this was actually about social justice instead of piety.
Reyanna Rice
7 years 8 months ago
Did you take the time to read any of the pope's talks to the kids especially at the vigil? He was moving them not to piety but to get off the sofa and from behind computer screens, to tie up their boots and go out into the world to make it a better place, via works of Mercy. Don't think you could get any more social justice than that. He was urging people to engage in social justice. I don't think you have a good idea of what all goes on at the event. There were many "workshops" where the kids listened to people like Crd Tagle speaking about various issues. Given his association with Caritas I would suspect he addressed social justice issues... Just a guess. It isn't all kneeling in the fields saying rosaries, going to Confession and listening to pious sermons.

The latest from america

The 12 women whose feet were washed by Pope Francis included women from Italy, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Ukraine, Russia, Peru, Venezuela and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"We, the members of the Society of Jesus, continue to be lifted up in prayer, in lament, in protest at the death and destruction that continue to reign in Gaza and other territories in Israel/Palestine, spilling over into the surrounding countries of the Middle East."
The Society of JesusMarch 28, 2024
A child wounded in an I.D.F. bombardment is brought to Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on March 25. (AP Photo/Ismael abu dayyah)
While some children have been evacuated from conflict, more than 1.1 million children in Gaza and 3.7 million in Haiti have been left behind to face the rampaging adult world around them.
Kevin ClarkeMarch 28, 2024
Easter will not be postponed this year. It will not wait until the war is over. It is precisely now, in our darkest hour, that resurrection finds us.
Stephanie SaldañaMarch 28, 2024