APPROACHING the microphone and looking out at 1.5 million Catholics – five square kilometres of young people from every corner of the world – to read the Second Reading at the final World Youth Day Lisbon Mass was nothing short of life changing for Brisbane Catholic Mikael Pitot.
He said the crowd alone was incredible.
“It’s almost like you can’t think on that scale until you see it,” he said.
Mr Pitot, 20, is a second-year teaching student at Australian Catholic University, Banyo and had travelled to World Youth Day as a Vincentian.
He was in Paris, on a leg of the pilgrimage learning about his Vincentian roots, when he received a call asking if he could do the second reading at the final Mass with Pope Francis.
He had a week to prepare.
When the day came, he said the “nerves were definitely there”.
“I think once I was up there, it’s one of those things, you’ve either got to go up and say something or run off the stage – I’m glad I didn’t run off the stage,” he said with a laugh.
He had been within a few metres of Pope Francis and said it was an honour to be in the sanctuary with him.
“It’s a very different perspective seeing him from the stage than from the crowd,” Mr Pitot said.
“To me, he seems like a very open person to anyone who came up to talk to him.
“It gave me a different perspective on him; it’s amazing to see these things up close.”
That had his word to describe the course of the whole pilgrimage – “amazing”.
He said you meet so many different people and establish connections with people who might not even share your language.
Most of all, he was grateful for the chance to grow closer to his fellow Vincentians.
He had done some volunteering with St Vincent de Paul Society in secondary school and has been a Vincentian for about three years.
He had cherished his chance in Paris to visit the bones of St Vincent and learn more about the core of the society.
Mr Pitot finished the pilgrimage with a retreat in Fatima.
His group had the chance to do the stations of the cross and pray the rosary at the Fatima shrine, which he said was an “incredible experience”.
Thinking ahead, Mr Pitot had planned to finish his secondary teaching education and become a religious education teacher.
“This (WYD) is an experience I can share with my students and hopefully encourage some of them to go to World Youth Day some day,” he said.
