Back in 1984, then-Pope John Paul II started an informal convening of youth for the International Jubilee of Youth in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, said Nick Brady, Next Steps adult faith formation director at St. Paul in Ham Lake. “That’s really where this idea of World Youth Day was born.”
Borrowing some wording from the World Youth Day website, Brady said the event is “an opportunity to personally experience the universality of the Catholic Church that we all belong to, and to share with the whole world the hope that so many people have who are committing their lives to Christ in this Church.”
“I really do think it’s this beautiful moment for all of us young adults to gather together and just see and gaze upon the future of the Church as we come together and stand in solidarity, and see how Christianity is still relevant to people all across the world, as it has been for the past 2,000 years, since Jesus’ time,” Brady said.
Brady and Michelle Boris, coordinator of young adult ministries at St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake, recently joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley to discuss a pilgrimage for young adults to 2023 World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal. The trip takes place July 29 through Aug. 7. World Youth Day takes place over six days, Brady said, but a couple additional days are built into the trip for sightseeing, visiting Fatima, and a chance to experience local culture.
“We’ll have opportunities like spending some time with Pope Francis at Mass,” Brady said, praying the Stations of the Cross and taking “a pilgrimage inside a pilgrimage,” walking to the vigil site “where we will spend the night under the stars, as they say.” That is in addition to opportunities to grow in faith and participate in catechetical sessions for English speakers as part of the World Youth Day experience, he said.
Brady participated in a World Youth Day pilgrimage to Poland in 2016. While Boris has not previously attended a World Youth Day, she has traveled internationally related to her faith. She served as a youth missionary with NET Ministries of Ireland for two years, conducting retreats for high school students. And she was part of a NET Ireland alumni team in Dubai and Oman. “One of the things that was really, really cool about that was seeing how the Church is lived out universally, even if it’s not exactly in our own culture, because we went to Mass in Arabic … but we knew what was happening because the Mass is so universal.”
Boris said she is looking forward to the pilgrimage to Lisbon, in part to meet people from other parts of the world and “understanding that our faith may be lived out a little bit differently, but it truly is really a universal Church.”
To learn more about the pilgrimage to World Youth Day in Lisbon, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which debuts at 9 p.m. Dec. 16 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and repeats at 1 p.m. Dec. 17 and 2 p.m. Dec. 18. Specifics about the trip can be found at archspm.org. Simply type “World Youth Day 2023” in the search bar.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who discusses the upcoming one-year anniversary of Bishop Joseph Williams’ ordination and the role of an auxiliary bishop; and Father Tim Tran, parochial vicar of St. Stephen in Anoka, who provides an update on the National Eucharistic Revival, as he serves as the revival’s “point person” for the archdiocese.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.
