DID YOU KNOW? WORLD YOUTH DAY!
• World Youth Day 2016 will take place in Krakow, Poland from 25th – 31st July. This is where Pope St John Paul II lived for forty years and was Archbishop from 1964 – 1978. These events are held every 2-3 years and have drawn crowds of up to 5 million people.
• Pope St John Paul II initially had the idea of inviting young people to travel to Rome to join him for Palm Sunday in 1984. Everyone was surprised when more than 300,000 turned up for the celebration, so he invited them again the following year.
• The first official World Youth Day was held in 1986 in Rome. At the last WYD in 2013 it is estimated that over 3 million people attended the Papal Mass that was held on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.
• Pope Francis helped to name one of the sites that will be used during this World Youth Day celebrations. It will be called Campus Misericordiae or the Field of Mercy. This site will host the Saturday night Vigil with the Holy Father and the Sunday morning Mass. These are the climax of World Youth Day.
• It is estimated that across Poland Catholic families have pledged accommodation for up to 373,000 foreign visitors. Roughly 2.5 million people are expected to attend the World Youth Day events in Krakow.
• During his visit Pope Francis will visit Czestochowa, the home of the monastery of Jasna Gora, which holds an icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa (also sometimes called the Black Madonna), the patroness of Poland. In 1991 the World Youth Day was held in Czestochowa.
• While in Poland, Pope Francis will also visit the chapel where St. Faustina Kowalska is buried. St. Faustina is a 20th century nun who had visions of Christ. Jesus revealed to her His Divine Mercy, inspiring great devotion across the world, and the praying of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
• The Pope also plans to visit Auschwitz, the site of a Nazi death camp which is about 40 miles from Krakow. At least 1.1 million people are thought to have died in the camp between 1940 and 1945.
• The World Youth Day Cross was made in 1983 to celebrate the Holy Year of Jubilee of the Redemption. Throughout that Jubilee year it was present at all the celebrations, as it was placed beside the Tomb of St. Peter. Afterwards the Pope presented the cross to the youth saying, “I entrust to you the sign of this Jubilee Year, the Cross of Christ! Carry it throughout the world as a symbol of Christ’s love for humanity, and announce to everyone that only in the death and resurrection of Christ can we find salvation and redemption."
• Since that time the Cross has been carried around the world, making a pilgrimage from parish to parish, diocese to diocese, and country to country touching hearts and inspiring holiness. It is accompanied by an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary also presented by Pope St John Paul II who said, “It will be a sign of Mary’s motherly presence close to young people who are called, like the Apostle John, to welcome her into their lives.”
