Fernando Mignone, a Canadian priest of Opus Dei, was one of the thousands of priests who attended World Youth Day.

Source - omnesmag.com - Fernando Mignone - August 22, 2023

"From the field", Mignone collected his impressions in a small "travel diary" that illustrates, in a privileged way, the moments, encounters and anecdotes of those intense days. 

Monday 31. On this Air Transat flight 680 from Montreal, perhaps one third of the passengers are WYD pilgrims.

I arrive in Lisbon, entrusting myself to the Pope on the feast of St. Ignatius. I will sleep at the Montes Claros University Residence, together with 50 or 60 other priests of the Opus Dei There are also lay residents from Europe and America.

I am from the Work and I am here to celebrate Mass, preach and hear the confessions of 55 Canadian girls. I will also meet, when I can and as I can, with 25 Canadian boys, also connected to the Work. But they have another priest. 

Confessions, encounters and selfies

Tuesday 1. I go to the Park of Forgiveness to hear confessions in five languages. It has 150 confessionals, built by prisoners. When I arrive, I happen to meet the six members of the Scholten family from Colorado and others from the states of Florida and Indiana from the Jesus Film Project. They have been invited by the WYD organizers to promote this initiative (see jesusfilm.org).

When I finish my confession, a Portuguese journalist from the Lusa agency interviews me in English. She wants to know what my message for young people is. "It is the Pope's message: Christ lives and we have to find him." 

I wait in line for an hour before I can board the city train, and in the hubbub I meet Noah Smith, from Des Moines, Iowa. He tells me that his father is a member of Opus Dei and that he is entering the Jesuit novitiate in September. We take a selfie.

In the afternoon I concelebrated Mass in the Parque Eduardo VII with the Patriarch of Lisbon, about eight thousand priests and hundreds of bishops, for more than half a million young people. How well the choir sings and the orchestra plays! The Marquis of Pombal seems to look at us in awe from his monument further down the hill, and in the background is the blue of the water.

Pope Francis arrives

Wednesday 2. ¡Francisco arrives! Meets with dignitaries. He quotes Camões: "Here... where the land ends and the sea begins". He speaks to them poetically of peace, dialogue, encounter, ecology, future, fraternity. Of having more children. "Where are they sailing to, Europe and the West, with the discarding of the elderly, the walls of thin wire, the tragedies at sea and the empty cradles? Where are they sailing to? Where are they going if, faced with the pain of living, they offer superficial and mistaken remedies, such as easy access to death, a solution of convenience that seems sweet, but in reality is more bitter than the waters of the sea? And I think of so many far-fetched laws on euthanasia... Lisbon, embraced by the ocean, nevertheless gives us reason for hope, it is a city of hope. An ocean of young people is flooding this welcoming city."

Pope prays Vespers with Portuguese bishops, priests, consecrated women... urging them not to lose heart, not to shrink, but to put out into the deep. He quotes the great Portuguese missionary Father António Vieira. "He said that God gave them a little land to be born on; but, making them look out over the ocean, he gave them the whole world to die on: 'To be born, a little land; to die, the whole earth; to be born, Portugal; to die, the world'. To cast our nets again and embrace the world with the hope of the Gospel: this is what we are called to do! It is not time to stop, it is not time to give up, it is not time to moor the boat on land or to look back; we do not have to evade this time because it frightens us and take refuge in forms and styles of the past".

Then Francis meets with victims of abuse, Ukrainian... 

Thursday 3. The sea wind is blowing strongly: the wind of the Holy Spirit. It has been almost five years since the last in personas we say, after the pandemic, the Pope's youth. "Your old men shall have dreams, your young men shall have visions.". In a book I brought with me, God is young, Francis quotes Joel 3:1. And there he adds: "Old dreamers and young prophets are the way of salvation for our uprooted society".

In the morning, at the Catholic University, the Pope answers the testimonies of three girls and a boy, Beatriz, Mahoor, Mariana and Tomás. He tells the Portuguese university students that the two verbs of the pilgrim are to seek and to risk. "Study well what I am telling you. In the name of progress, the way has been opened to a great regression. You are the generation that can overcome this challenge, you have the most advanced scientific and technological instruments, but please do not fall into the trap of partial visions. Do not forget that we need an integral ecology; we need to listen to the suffering of the planet alongside that of the poor; we need to place the drama of desertification alongside that of refugees, the issue of migrations alongside that of the declining birth rate; we need to deal with the material dimension of life within a spiritual dimension. Not to create polarizations but visions of the whole."

Explains, in Scholas Ocurrentes a cultural organization for young people in almost 200 countries: "Sometimes in life, you have to get your hands dirty so as not to dirty your heart. A young evangelist, a Catholic, and a Muslim talk with Francisco about his project that unites art, culture and religion.

Welcoming ceremony in the afternoon. "Everyone, everyone, everyone fits in the Church!" the Pope cried out to almost a million young people. It was a beautiful event, the first multitudinous one with him. And he warns us not to fall into make-up, to look for "likes". And he speaks to them about vocation.

"You are not here by chance. The Lord called you, not only in these days, but from the beginning of your lives. He called all of us from the beginning of life. He called you by name. We hear the Word of God calling us by name. Try to imagine these words written in large letters; and then think that they are written inside each of you, in your hearts, as if forming the title of your life, the meaning of who you are: you have been called by nameYou, you, you, you, you, you, here, all of us, me, we were all called by name. We were not called automatically, we were called by name. Let us think about this: Jesus called me by name. They are words written in the heart, and then let us think that they are written inside each one of us, in our hearts, and they form a kind of the title of your life, the meaning of what we are, the meaning of what you are". 

"You have been called by name. None of us is a Christian by chance, we were all called by name. At the beginning of the fabric of life, before the talents we have, before the shadows of the wounds we carry within us, we have been called. We have been called, why? Because we are loved. We have been called because we are loved. It is beautiful. In the eyes of God we are precious children, whom He calls every day to embrace, to encourage, to make of each one of us a unique, original masterpiece. Each of us is unique and is original, and the beauty of it all we cannot glimpse."

I have dinner with a new friend, Venezuelan pastor Rolando Rojas, whom I just bumped into. He attends the formation courses of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross (Opus Dei) in his diocese.

Central days of WYD

Friday 4. In the morning Pope hears three confessions in the Park of Forgiveness. Then he says these spontaneous words in a meeting with representatives of assistance and charity centers.

"Am I disgusted by poverty, by the poverty of others? Am I always looking for the distilled life, that which exists in my fantasy, but does not exist in reality? How many distilled lives, useless, that pass through life without leaving a trace, because their life has no weight!" 

In a restaurant, I am talking to a stranger for the umpteenth time. This time it is the Austrian parish priest Martin Truttenberger, who has just crossed the Alps on a motorcycle in nine days! He hands out dozens of little medals of Our Lady in the cafeteria of the Catholic University, and then we ride the motorcycle to the Oratory of St. Josemaria. 

The stage where the Way of the Cross in the afternoon has been built over the box where the Pope is, and it was there that the papal welcome took place yesterday and the Mass with the Patriarch on Tuesday. Blue towers, boldly climbed by the young actors, tied to ropes, transferring a wooden cross from one tower to another. A magnificent Stations of the Cross, exquisitely choreographed, among others by the well-known theater director Matilde Trocado, and magnificently acted by 50 young people from many countries, supported by hundreds of other musicians, singers or young workers behind the scenes. In all, the boys and girls come from some twenty countries. 

This Stations of the Cross was prepared by Jesuit priests and Portuguese youth for two years, and the text highlights vulnerability and faith. In these years of synods on synodality, thousands of young people, with the help of the Dicastery for the Laity were canvassed all over the world. Their concerns, weaknesses and wounds were incorporated into the text of the Way of the Cross: mental health (there is a testimony, recorded and shown on a large screen, of a young Portuguese man), loneliness, violence, fear, unemployment, the false illusions of social media, addictions, and two other recorded testimonies, that of a young Spanish woman who had an abortion and then converted, and that of a young American man who overcame addictions - both are on the podium very close to the Pope with their respective spouses. 

This is what the Pope told us at the beginning of the Way of the Cross: 

"(Moment of silence) Jesus, with his tenderness, wipes away our hidden tears, Jesus is waiting to fill our loneliness with his closeness. Jesus hopes to fill, with his closeness, our loneliness, how sad are the moments of loneliness! He is there, He wants to fill that loneliness. Jesus wants to fill our fear, your fear, my fear, those dark fears He wants to fill with His consolation, and He waits to push us, to embrace the risk of loving. Because you know it, you know it better than I do: to love is risky. You have to take the risk of loving. It is a risk, but it is worth taking, and He accompanies us in this. He always accompanies us. He always walks with us.

"He is always with us throughout our lives. I don't want to say much more. Today we are going to walk the path with him, the path of his suffering, the path of our anxieties, ... of our loneliness. Now, a second of silence and each one of us think of our own suffering, think of our own anxiety, think of our own miseries. Do not be afraid, think of them, and think of the desire for the soul to smile again. (Minute of silence) And Jesus walks to the Cross, dies on the Cross so that our soul may smile. Amen."

Saturday 5. Pope travels to Fatima, the capital of peace. Pray for peace. She prays the rosary with sick young people, in the Capelinha, in the place where Mary appeared to Sister Lucia Santos, Saint Jacinta and Saint Francisco Marto, on May 13, April, June, July, September and October of 1917, in the middle of the Great War. They pray to the "rushed - hurried" Virgin of the Visitation.

At about one o'clock, I finish my pastoral work, and I meet an Irishman who married a Brazilian woman a year ago. catholicmatch.com and now live in Dublin. They dream of starting a Christian family.

All the pilgrims run, fly, walk towards the Parque de la Gracia. Let's see who gets there first! On the way, we meet, among many others, two Cuban seminarians, Lazaro and Dionne, who came with more than 200 pilgrims from their island. 

Arriving at our sector around three o'clock in the afternoon, it is not easy to get a little piece of land to lay your head there tonight, to be able to see the Vigil ceremony, to see the Pope as he passes by. This sector must have been full before noon, and we had tickets. 

Thank God for the audiovisual technology, for the giant screens, for the work of the 25,000 volunteers from more than twenty countries... Like Charlotte from Victoriaville, Quebec. "I came with the idea that I was content to see the Pope's little finger. But because I was in charge of security, I was able to see him four times from a few meters away." 

From the podium-oratory, where the Pope and the altar are, the testimony of a Portuguese priest can be heard on the large screens, and the music that accompanies the dance, the Pope's speech, and above all, the transfigured Lord is adored. How solemnly the hymn sounds. Panis Angelicum! There are many other musical compositions.

The following day, Cardinal Manuel Clemente of Lisbon told Vatican News, "the conviction of these people. It is not easy, in a crowd, a crowd of this size. It was seen in all the celebrations ... It was not necessary for someone to ask for silence, immediately everyone fell silent ... in Eucharistic adoration, there were a million and a half young people, who lost sight of each other. But when the Blessed Sacrament was placed on the altar, what was it? Conviction, devotion...a very strong moment...no one said a word. The Blessed Sacrament was placed and?  tck tckThey were silent. What is this? It's something from Heaven, it's not our doing."

Afterwards, party, fellowship, and try to sleep...

The final Holy Mass

Sunday 6. Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. It is logical to say, in the singular, "World Youth Day", because everything culminates in the celebration of this Sunday Eucharist, in this case, given the calendar, liturgically the Transfiguration.

I see the Church transfigured, as I concelebrate with more than ten thousand priests and some 800 bishops, led by the Bishop of Rome: we consecrate the bread and wine that will nourish one and a half million young Christians from all countries, from the five continents, there are their banners. Transfigured Church of the 21st century.

In my thanksgiving after Communion, immune to the dehydrating sweat, I think that the world has turned the corner. How providential this pontiff is! He asks young people in his homily not to be afraid!! He prays a litany of "obrigados" at the end of the Mass, explaining to us that be bound means to commit, to act. He concludes: "Thank you to You, Lord Jesus. Thank you to you, Mary, our Mother; and now let us pray" the Angelus. 

In the afternoon Francis invites volunteers to ride the wave of God's Love. "North of Lisbon there is a locality, Nazaréwhere you can admire waves that reach up to thirty meters high and are a worldwide attraction, especially for surfers who challenge them. ...You have faced a real wave; not of water, but of young people, young people who have flooded this city. But, with God's help, with a lot of generosity and supporting each other, you have challenged this great wave. Look at how brave you are. Thank you, obrigado! I want to tell you to continue in this way, to continue to stay on the waves of love, on the waves of charity, ¡be surfers of love!"

Monday 7. I visit Fatima, an hour and a half to the north, by bus. As I travel, I evaluate the WYD. Was this the best WYD? For this chronicler on foot, who has been to four, this was the most perfect, within the usual chaos. For the Pope, of his four WYDs (Rio de Janeiro, Krakow, Panama, Lisbon), this was the best organized. 

Oh, what good people are the Portuguese, the Portuguese! They are simple, discreet, hardworking, welcoming, respectful of Christians. A tour guide says that there are Portuguese who are not Catholics but who go to Our Lady of Fatima in their needs. In Fatima one sees Portuguese penitents, advancing on their knees towards the Chapel of the Apparitions. On the Way of the Cross, a bunch of Italians from Comunione e Liberazione pray and sing under a mind-blowing sun.

Tuesday 8. I return to Montreal. On the plane, I meet my friend Father Richard Conlin, from Corpus Christi parish in Vancouver. He is traveling with 25 parishioners, young people from 16 to 24 years of age and adults accompanying them. The boys want to go to Seoul in 2027.

Wednesday 9. Francis arrived at the Vatican on Sunday night. There he sums up WYD. I transcribe in closing quotes from today's Papal Audience. "So many young people from all parts of the world, so many! To go to meet and encounter Jesus." Mary "guides the pilgrimage of young people in the footsteps of Jesus... As she did precisely a century ago in Portugal, in Fatima, when she addressed three children entrusting to them a message of faith and hope for the Church and for the world." 

In Fatima, "I prayed for peace, because there are so many wars in all parts of the world, all of them".

"The young people of the world came to Lisbon in great numbers and with great enthusiasm... It was not a vacation, a tourist trip, nor was it a spiritual event, an end in itself; WYD is an encounter with the living Christ through the Church, young people go to meet Christ... I thank God for" the festive atmosphere. "Where there are young people there is trouble, they know how to do it well".

And while in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world there is fighting, and while in certain hidden rooms war is being planned, WYD has shown everyone that another world is possible. "A world of brothers and sisters, where the flags of all peoples fly together, side by side, without hatred, without fear, without closures, without weapons!". Will the "great ones of the earth" listen to this youthful enthusiasm that wants peace?

"It is a parable for our time, and even today Jesus says: 'He who has ears, let him hear; he who has eyes, let him see. We hope that the whole world will listen to this Youth Day and see this beauty of young people go forward."

THE AUTHOR

Fernando Mignone

Montreal