“We Came, We Saw, We Worshipped” We Came … On arrival in the Diocese of Trier, Germany, the five parishes of the Bad Kreuznach deanery welcomed the 112 pilgrims from the Diocese of Leeds with flags waving, banners flying and voices singing. For the next four nights pilgrims stayed with host families from the parishes. These days were filled with sight seeing trips to local beauty spots and places of interest. We participated and experienced something of German life and culture by joining in local community projects and we prayed together and celebrated Mass in our German parishes. Prior to arrival many of the young people were anxious about the prospect of staying with German families but when it came to move on to the next part of our pilgrimage many were reluctant to leave behind their new family and the friendships that had been made in their short, but enjoyable, stay in the Bad Kreuznach deanery. Nevertheless, it was time to travel to our hotel accommodation in Wuppertal. After the initial build-up and fun in the Diocese of Trier, the festival atmosphere really began at the catechesis site, a huge football arena in Düsseldorf where somewhere between 10,000 -15,000 English speaking pilgrims gathered to listen to various Bishops and young people speak to us about living as a Christian in the modern world. The catechesis events were animated by Christian rock bands. During the catechesis event hundreds of priests were situated all around the stadium available to hear the confessions of the World Youth Day pilgrims. The catechesis events concluded with a lively celebration of Mass. We Saw … We saw Pope Benedict XVI!! We first saw the Pope as he arrived by plane into Germany. We watched his arrival on big screens in the catechesis arena. It was two days later when we next saw Pope Benedict. Leaving the luxury of our hotels behind, we travelled to Marienfeld, the site of the Papal Vigil and Mass. After a rigorous four and a half hour walk we finally arrived at our field!! It was an amazing sight to see field after field of pilgrims (the estimated total reaches near one million!) We Worshipped … The theme of World Youth Day 2005 was “We Have Come to Worship Him” taken from Matthew’s Gospel. During our time in Germany we gathered with young Catholics from throughout the world to share our faith in Jesus, to gather as the Church around the successor of St. Peter. Below are just some of the comments made by some of the Leeds pilgrims as they returned home from this live changing experience. “It was amazing to see such a huge amount of people sharing the same beliefs as us – a real comfort to see we’re not alone – it’s been great!” “World Youth Day has given me a greater awareness of the world wide unity of the catholic faith and enabled me to meet lots of new people.” “World Youth Day rocked! Not only did I realize the importance of God and my faith, I also realized the importance of sharing them with friends. My memories will last for ever. Everybody who went are amazing people. I hope to see every one in Sydney.”
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World Youth Day Article