Preparing for World Youth Day?

The volunteers on the Local Organising Committee for World Youth Day have been putting out a series of ‘WYD Minute’ videos to help people prepare and get an idea of what to expect from this amazing event. Here’s the English version of their latest one – have a look on their YouTube channel for others.

CatholicYouthWork.com has more on WYD coming soon.

Poor musn’t be excluded from WYD

A Polish bishops has said that the poor must not be excluded from World Youth Day, and we must do what we can to ensure all can be included.

He said that “we’re well aware how much deprivation, unemployment and neglect there is, and this requires from us all sensitivity and solidarity with the poorest, so they won’t feel left out,” he said July 31, as preparations continued for the event set for July 26-31 in the southern Polish city.” Read more

WYD: “We are planning campaigns that will constantly ‘amp up’ the atmosphere and anticipation”

You don’t need us to tell you how valuable social media is for work in the Church with young people and young adults, this is something that is really clear to those who are organising World Youth Day. Below are extracts from an interview with Michał Koza, who is responsible for the official WYD social media channels.

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World Youth Day Song – English

In Australia they have recorded an unofficial English version of the World Youth Day Song! Well done them! You can find out more about it here, and listen to it below.

Pope chooses beatitudes as themes for WYD 2014, 2015, 2016

Pope Francis has asked Catholic young people around the world to read, meditate and act on the beatitudes as they celebrate World Youth Day in their dioceses in 2014 and 2015 and as they prepare to join him in Poland in 2016.

Taking the text of the beatitudes from the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Pope Francis has chosen the themes for World Youth Day celebrations for the next three years, the Vatican announced on Thursday.

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So we’re going to Krakow, are we..?

Now that the worst-kept secret in the world is out of the bag, we”re free to talk about it in a little more than passing whispers and vague hints: yes, that”s right folks, the next World Youth Day is going to be held in Krakow, Poland in 2016. Here are some thoughts.

• While the location wasn”t a surprise, the date was. It was widely expected to be 2015, to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the first World Youth Day and the 10th anniversary of (by then) Pope Saint John Paul. Interestingly though, the PCL have clearly taken the hint (and the feedback) that two years is too small a gap, and decided that the need to plan and raise money trumps the need to hit the anniversaries dead on. A very smart, sensible move.
• Even though WYD won”t hit the tenth anniversary of his death, this event will still be very, very JP2 centred. Indeed, if there is any sense in the Vatican (and there is these days) Pope Saint JP2 will be made a patron – if not the patron – of WYD, ensuring a link far into the future.

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