World Youth Day 2005:
CUA Students Awed by Pope Benedict XVI
 
By John Meehan

Young adult pilgrims from countries all over the world convened in Cologne, Germany, from Aug. 16 to 21 to attend the weeklong World Youth Day 2005 celebration.

An estimated two dozen Catholic University students had the opportunity to participate in World Youth Day 2005, which ran from Aug. 16 to 21 in Cologne, Germany. The CUA students included Nicole Firment, a CUA junior who was there with the youth group from her hometown of Avon, Ohio.

“It was absolutely overwhelming,” Firment said. “It was beautiful to see all of those people coming to this one place from all corners of the world to share in this experience.”

Taking a cue from the call of the Magi, World Youth Day 2005 reflected the theme “Come, let us adore Him.” And come pilgrims did, filling the streets, subways and stadiums of Cologne and its surrounding areas with an audience of more than 1 million young adult Catholics hailing from 197 countries around the globe.

Firment, a double major in politics and Spanish for international studies, said she heard pilgrims speaking a number of languages and, on occasion, “spontaneously breaking out into traditional ethnic dances in the middle of the crowd.”

John Paul Mitchell, a senior philosophy major, had the opportunity to experience the crowd from a volunteer’s perspective.

In exchange for free room and board provided by a local German high school, Mitchell and a group of CUA travelers worked as “stage hands, tour guides and roadies” for the numerous youth festivals, workshops and programs held in nearby Düsseldorf in the week leading up to the pope’s arrival in Cologne on Aug. 20.

“The city wasn’t really built to handle the size of the crowds,” Mitchell said. “Crowds completely overflowed the metro trains,” causing delays lasting up to several hours, he added. “But [the pilgrims] didn’t care… they just wouldn’t let the party stop.”

Mitchell, who attended World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, described this year’s event as an opportunity “to give a little bit more back to the program itself. I really enjoyed volunteering, perhaps even more than I enjoyed [being a pilgrim in] Toronto because I felt like I was taking a greater part in the program. I had the chance to see it from two different lenses, and I felt like I really got more out of it this time.”

Event Targets Young Adult Catholics
Established in 1986 by the late Pope John Paul II, the World Youth Day celebration features a week of events geared toward young adult Catholics. The event culminates with an overnight Eucharistic adoration vigil and the celebration of Sunday Mass with the Holy Father. World Youth Day 2005 marked the 20th anniversary of the event’s founding, and the first time such an event was hosted by a pope other than John Paul II.

Brandon Umba, a sophomore politics major who attended this year’s event, noted that there was uncertainty among some young people about the new pope because he was unfamiliar to them. Umba, who had attended World Youth Day 2002, admitted that initially he, too, didn’t know how he would receive the new pontiff.

Pilgrims flood the outdoor amphitheater in Cologne, Germany, to catch a glimpse of the live address delivered by Pope Benedict XVI.

But by the time the overnight vigil got underway, Umba said he realized that “we were witnessing a changing of arms.” Then, he said, he was “able to embrace this new pope as our spiritual leader.”

Pope Benedict XVI was “a great speaker,” Umba said, adding that the pope delivered most of his address in German before summarizing his main points in four different languages.

“He wanted the youth of the world to stand up and be educated about their faith, then to go home and to preach this experience to their home communities,” Umba said. “He challenged us to keep the faith alive for people of all ages.”

Umba even recorded a number of the Holy Father’s remarks on video cassette, and he is working on having them translated in order to “fully comprehend the pope’s message.”

Firment, who also had attended World Youth Day 2002, was likewise impressed with the new Holy Father.

“The energy was unbelievable once he appeared onstage and addressed the youth as the future of the world,” she said. “People really were able to get a better idea of who Benedict XVI was.”

Firment described World Youth Day 2005 as “a good starting point” for Benedict XVI’s papacy, and added that his appearance at this event gave her “a sense of camaraderie with fellow Catholics, no matter who our leader might be.”

Senior John Paul Mitchell agreed with his fellow travelers’ assessment of this year’s event. “It was really outstanding. More than anything, World Youth Day is a real experience of the worldwide church and the communion of saints here on earth... it just blows my mind.”

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