Cohoes Catholic youths part of Paris gathering

Six young people from St. Agnes/St. Patrick's and St. Marie's parishes in Cohoes are representing the Albany Diocese in Paris at World Youth Day this week.

The young people and their two chaperons left August 18 for the WYD festivities, which include celebrations with Pope John Paul II. They are among 13,000 U.S. teens participating in the international event, which combines catechesis, fellowship, worship and renewal.

The trip is especially important to the group; they spent a year raising money, only to lose it when the California-based travel agency handling their trip went out of business. The parish communities and readers of The Evangelist pitched in so that the young Catholics could still take their trip.

Hopes and dreams

"One of the big reasons I wanted to go was that the Pope would be there," said Steven Blais, a 21-year-old senior at SUNY/Plattsburgh. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

He's looking forward to meeting young people from other nations and seeing Paris, but he's also concerned about the plane ride than language barriers.

"I'm nervous about the plane ride. I've only been on one once before," he said. "I took seven years of French in school and both my parents speak fluent French."

Concerns

This will be 15-year-old Sarah Purcell's first time out of the country. "I want to see everything," she said, listing "the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and all the World Youth Day activities."

While she's looking forward to the event, she is concerned about the crowds. "I hear the pickpockets are pretty sneaky," she said.

All fears aside, the high school junior is prepared to be changed by the event: "I'm sure it will change me. It's the only time in my life I'll meet people from around the world."

Coming together

While Jacqueline Smith, 16, is concerned about the plane ride and language barriers, she said, "I'm mostly excited."

She was moved by the support of the parishioners when the travel agency went out of business. "Being a teenager, I felt alienated from the Church," she said. "Then the community pulled for us and the support was great. I know where God is. God's in the people."

To help remember the event vividly, she's decided to write about it. "I'm going to keep a journal every night," she said.

Why she's going

Lindsay Simmons, a 15-year-old high school junior, decided to go on the trip because "I thought it would be a good thing to see the Pope and improve my French."

While she was disappointed by the loss of the money the group had raised, she is able to see the silver lining. "We were almost done with our fund raising at that point," she explained, "so we had to think of new things to do. We had to come together as a group. People pulled together for us."

Katrina Benamati, also 15, was confident the trip would go on. "I didn't have a doubt that we would go," she said. "I knew we'd get it back."

Like sister

Nicole Halabuda, a 14-year-old high school freshman, has been looking forward to World Youth Day since her older sister attended World Youth Day in Denver four years ago.

While her sister came back with stories of people getting dehydrated and having to walk for extended periods, Nicole is confident Paris will be a positive experience.

"I think it will be different in Paris," she said.

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