A Stations of the Cross in Saint Peter’s Square on Saturday evening, and two masses, one presided over on Saturday by the Portuguese Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, and the other on Sunday by the South Korean Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik: it is through these celebrations tracing a symbolic “bridge” between the WYD of Lisbon 2023 and those of Seoul 2027 will be commemorated the 40th anniversary of the intuition launched by John Paul II and continued by his successors. It was in fact from April 11 to 15, 1984 that Rome saw an influx of young people from all over the world for the first time, under the astonished gaze of the prelates of the Vatican which was not used to such a festive atmosphere. Observing the crowd from the window of his apartment, the old Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, born in 1893, who was the secretary of Pope Pius XI before the Second World War, confided to his relatives his emotion at seeing so many young people gathering around the bishop of Rome.
A very close friend of the Polish Pope, whom he had known in Krakow since the 1960s, the Italian layman Marcello Bedeschi was part of the committee of four people responsible for organizing this first gathering, in conjunction with the Pontifical Council for the Laity. “John Paul II always spoke to us about young people, noting their enthusiasm, their joy at being together. As a priest then bishop and cardinal, he organized numerous meetings in Poland which constituted in some ways the beginnings of WYD. This represented a vision of catholicity as a way of relating to one another, as brothers. When he became pope, he desperately looked for an opportunity to make this idea a reality. At the end of the Holy Year of Redemption of 1983-84, the idea of a meeting of reflection and prayer for young people in Rome was born, to allow them to meet the Lord,” he confided to I.Media last summer, shortly before the World Youth Day in Lisbon.
“This first meeting in 1984 attracted young people from 80 countries, which was a great surprise. John Paul II then took the opportunity of the International Year of Youth proclaimed by the UN to launch the idea of another meeting, in 1985. This meeting, still in Rome, worked very well too. This led John Paul II to write a Letter formalizing the idea of World Youth Days, which would alternate between the diocesan level and a global meeting, organized every two or three years,” he specified.
As president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Argentine Cardinal Eduardo Pironio, who was beatified last December, will play a decisive role in favor of the internationalization of these gatherings. It was in fact in Buenos Aires, the capital of his native Argentina, which had recently emerged from the dictatorship, that the first relocated WYD was organized in 1987. Two editions followed, organized in European sanctuaries, in Santiago de Compostela. in 1989 and in Częstochowa, in a Poland just liberated from communism, in 1991.
Over the years, the Polish pontiff will be very attentive to the choice of host cities and the development of programs. “John Paul II personally followed this entire project, including its details and its symbols, such as that of entrusting young people with the WYD cross, in order to bring it everywhere in the world. This approach has come to fruition even in unthinkable places, including when the cross was carried clandestinely beyond the Iron Curtain, into communist countries. I remember these trips with great intensity,” recalls Marcello Bedeschi.
The symbol of a globalization of the Catholic faith
The WYD will subsequently take on the appearance of “Olympics of faith”, embodying the image of a globalized Church, with the editions of Denver in 1993, Manila in 1995 and Paris in 1997, which sees the actors of the different “ chapels” of French Catholicism roll up their sleeves together to welcome Catholic youth from around the world. The final mass at the Longchamp racecourse will bring together more than a million participants, constituting one of the largest gatherings in French history and generating sympathetic and massive media coverage.
The return to Rome for the following edition, organized as part of the Jubilee of the year 2000, gave John Paul II, weakened by illness, the opportunity to convey to young people a message of hope for the new millennium. which opens. Many young pilgrims present then believe they are experiencing their last meeting with John Paul II, but the Polish pope will still find the strength to cross the Atlantic two years later, to participate in the WYD in Toronto, in 2002, in a more serious atmosphere , still marked by the attacks of September 11, 2001 which occurred less than a year earlier.
A model perpetuated by Benedict XVI and Francis
Initially presented as more shy than its predecessor and less comfortable with large gatherings, Benedict XVI perpetuates the WYD model with the editions of Cologne, in his native Germany, a few months after his election in 2005, then of Sydney in 2008 and of Madrid in 2011. He encourages the organizers to leave more room for times of interiority, silence and adoration, arousing the unexpected support of hundreds of thousands of young people. His serene presence under a Dantesque storm, during the final WYD gathering in Madrid, will remain one of the strong images of his pontificate, demonstrating the fidelity of a pope remaining with his people despite the storm.
Elected in March 2013, Pope Francis made his first international trip to Brazil the following July, for the WYD in Rio. In front of three million faithful, including many young people from all over Latin America, the first pope from the Southern hemisphere touches the soul of his native continent with his simplicity and spontaneity, without allowing himself to be destabilized by the “ hiccups” of the organization, in particular an error by his escort who drove his car into a traffic jam upon his arrival. In Krakow in 2016, in Panama in 2019 and finally in Lisbon in 2023 – WYD postponed by a year due to the pandemic – Pope Francis multiplies the gestures of attention towards young people in search of faith and fraternity.
If the WYD organized at the diocesan level, now every Christ the King Sunday, have never had the same impact as these international gatherings, the WYD model nevertheless remains a central tool for the evangelization of young people. The course set towards Asia, with the gathering planned for Seoul in 2027, also gives a valuable indication of the growth poles of world Catholicism.
And if the cost of WYD has sometimes sparked controversy, Marcello Bedeschi sees these gatherings above all as an investment in the future. “One of the things that gives me the most emotion are the vocations that are born during WYD: priestly, religious, family, professional vocations… For many young people, including in moments of crisis, WYD brought a decisive boost to their vocation, their orientation. This is an aspect of which priests and those responsible for Catholic movements must be aware,” insists the Italian octogenarian, happy to see a new generation take up the torch of this event, now led from Rome by the Youth Section of the dicastery. for the Laity, the family and life.
(IN PICTURES) All editions of WYD
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