Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home Culture WYD 2016 World Youth Day

WYD pilgrims leave Krakow eager to be missionaries of mercy

byEmilie Ng
3 August 2016 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 4 mins read
AA

Sea of faith: World Youth Day pilgrims hold candles during eucharistic adoration with Pope Francis at the July 30 prayer vigil at the Field of Mercy in Krakow, Poland. Photos: Emilie Ng

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Sea of faith: World Youth Day pilgrims hold candles during eucharistic adoration with Pope Francis at the July 30 prayer vigil at the Field of Mercy in Krakow, Poland. Photos: Emilie Ng
Sea of faith: World Youth Day pilgrims hold candles during eucharistic adoration with Pope Francis at the July 30 prayer vigil at the Field of Mercy in Krakow, Poland. Photos: Emilie Ng

THEY’RE exhausted, homesick and desperate for a shower, but Australia’s 3000 pilgrims are ready to heed Pope Francis’ call to get off the couch and “live lives of mercy”.

Australia’s Catholics made their voices and flags known among the 356,000 registered WYD pilgrims from 187 countries who gathered in Krakow last week.

Pilgrims walked more than 100km during the WYD week, held between July 26 and 31, to participate in catechesis, daily Mass, special youth festival events and gatherings, and the final Vigil and Mass with Pope Francis.

The final Mass was held 22km from the Australian pilgrims’ accommodation in Krakow.

The Holy Father greeted more than 1.5 million registered and unregistered pilgrims at their final gathering at Campus Misericordiae, a site in Poland designed specifically for the WYD Vigil and Mass.

Pope Francis thanked the enormous Catholic youth gathering for fulfilling St John Paul II’s dream of bringing young people together for the cause of Christ.

“You filled Krakow with the contagious enthusiasm of your faith,” Pope Francis said. “St John Paul II has rejoiced from heaven, and he will help you spread the joy of the Gospel everywhere.”

During his speech at the Vigil on July 30, Pope Francis responded to a testimony by Rand Mittri, a young Catholic woman from Syria who spoke of the murderous persecution in her country.

“Today the war in Syria has caused pain and suffering for so many people, for so many young people like our good friend Rand, who has come here and asked us to pray for her beloved country,” the Pope said.

He then told the young people that the way to conquer war was not with hatred but with unity and mercy.

Related Stories

Pope Francis asks for prayers after 50 migrants found dead in Texas trailer truck

Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

“Our response to a world at war has a name: its name is fraternity, its name is brotherhood, its name is communion, its name is family,” the Pope said.

He called the young people to a time of silence before warning them against a “kind of paralysis” that confuses happiness with “a good sofa”.

Paralysis and a lukewarm attitude towards life was a recurring theme in the Pope’s messages to young people during the WYD.

“For many people in fact, it is much easier and better to have drowsy and dull kids who confuse happiness with a sofa,” he said.

“That is probably the most harmful and insidious form of paralysis, since little by little, without even realising it, we start to nod off, to grow drowsy and dull.

“Yesterday I talked about the young people who retire at the age of 20, while others – perhaps more alert than we are, but not necessarily better – decide on our future for us.”

St Vincent de Paul Society Queensland youth worker Ryan Andrews was among several hundreds who were given an opportunity for a front-row pew when the Holy Father admonished couch potatoes.

Mr Andrews said spending time in prayer so close to Pope Francis was “incredible”.

“It was an amazing energy, atmosphere to know that behind me there were a couple of million people with the Pope and how he challenged the people to not be couch potatoes, to get off the couch, put on shoes and to walk into the world as missionaries,” he said.

“I was basically right up the front and was able to kneel with the Pope; it felt like I was just right behind him.”

Mr Andrews was joined by Alice Springs pilgrim Olivia Rose who travelled with the Darwin, Brisbane and Rockhampton Catholics.

The 31st WYD in Krakow coincided with the extraordinary jubilee Year of Mercy, taking its theme from the Gospel of Matthew 5:5.

Krakow is often considered the city of mercy as it is the home of St Faustina Kowalska, who had a vision of the Divine Mercy, and St John Paul II, who made the devotion an official feast in the Church.

Inspired: Joans Thetadig.
Inspired: Joans Thetadig.

Nundah parishioner Joans Thetadig said she was impacted most by the witness of the Polish people at the Jasna Góra monastery Czestochowa’s deep Catholic faith, in particular their daily devotion to Our Lady.

“Every single night, 365 days a year, they all sing our Lady to sleep, our Lady goodnight,” Ms Thetadig said. “And just masses of people, and this is not a special occasion, not a feast day or anything. 

“Every morning they’ll sing her awake.

“And it’s just that next level of devotion.”

Polish episcopate spokesperson Fr Pawel Rytel-Adrianik told the Polish Press Agency that the Krakow WYD “went beyond all expectations”.

“It took place in a family atmosphere; in fact, one could say it was somewhat like when a father speaks to his children,” Fr Rytel-Adrianik said.

“The Holy Father encouraged the young people to roll up their sleeves, not let themselves be educated by the media sitting in solitude before computers, but to open themselves, move forward and take matters into their own hands.”

Pope Francis announced the next WYD would be held in Panama in 2019.

Numerous Australian groups travelled throughout Europe for a post-WYD retreat while others stayed in Poland to complete their pilgrimage journey.

They are set to return to Australia with stories of their pilgrimage in the coming weeks.

 

ShareTweet
Previous Post

‘This is not human, this is not Christ’, Don Dale centre priest says

Next Post

St Paul’s reaching out to help refugees settle into Australia

Emilie Ng

Emilie Ng is a Brisbane-based journalist for The Catholic Leader.

Related Posts

Tragedy: Debra Ponce, left, and Angelita Olvera of San Antonio mourn near the scene where dozens of immigrants were found dead inside a trailer truck a day earlier on June 28. Photo: CNS
World

Pope Francis asks for prayers after 50 migrants found dead in Texas trailer truck

29 June 2022
Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech
Family

Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

27 June 2022
Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families
News

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

27 June 2022
Next Post

St Paul’s reaching out to help refugees settle into Australia

Iraqi refugees welcomed to Darra by Archbishop and school community

mary mackillop chapel art

Enduring memorial St Mary of the Cross opened in CBD

Popular News

  • Performer: Liza is a trained gymnast and contortionist and has enjoyed performing at St Eugene College.

    Young Ukrainian performer settles into new life in Brisbane school

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Man of faith: Newly-ordained priest Fr El Louie Jiminez with Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge at St Stephen's Cathedral on June 29. Photos: Alan Edgecomb / Purple Moon Photography
QLD

Fr El Louie Jimenez ordained

by Joe Higgins
30 June 2022
0

BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge ordained Fr El Louie Jimenez in front of hundreds of faithful at St...

Braving the cold: Caloundra Unity College Principal Daniel McShea ,Our Lady of the Rosary College Principal Dr Michael Stewart and Caloundra priest Fr Joshua Whitehead.

Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

30 June 2022
Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

30 June 2022
Performer: Liza is a trained gymnast and contortionist and has enjoyed performing at St Eugene College.

Young Ukrainian performer settles into new life in Brisbane school

29 June 2022
Secret baptisms show how Christians still persecuted worldwide

Secret baptisms show how Christians still persecuted worldwide

29 June 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping