Students off to World Youth Day

Young people from the Albany Diocese are packing their bags and heading to Germany.

Twenty-three high school and college students from Oneonta and Rensselaer are departing this week and next to attend the 2005 World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, where they will experience prayer, community, worship and catechesis with more than a million other young Catholics from across the globe.

The pilgrims will be housed in hotels and parishes throughout Cologne and its neighboring cities, Bonn and Dusseldorf. Activities for the Aug. 16-21 event will include festivals, Masses, prayer services, the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Stations of the Cross. Pope Benedict XVI will attend opening ceremonies, a vigil and a closing Mass at Frechen, a former mine which will be renamed "Marienfeld" in honor of the occasion.

Covering costs

In Oneonta, ten students from the Newman Club at St. Mary's Church have held ziti dinners, fund drives, and other money-raisers to cover the costs of the pilgrim package. According to Rev. Steven Moore, campus minister at Oneonta's colleges and associate pastor at St. Mary's, the students raised around $4,000.

On the Sunday before World Youth Day, the pilgrims will gather at St. Mary's for an 8 a.m. Mass. In Cologne, they hope to attend a gathering of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association in addition to the other activities.

Jim Buzon, a junior at SUNY/Oneonta and parishioner of St. Catherine's Church in Middleburgh, was in attendance at World Youth Day 2002, held in Toronto, Canada. He was intrigued by the musical events there and hopes to attend some in Cologne.

"I'd heard Christian music before, but I'd never experienced the energy of a whole crowd -- hundreds and hundreds of people my own age just reacting to it," he explained.

Fond memories

The sight of a million people expressing their faith in many ways stuck in his memory: "I thought the faith I had wasn't a thing to do, that there wasn't a huge following, that the faith was kind of dwindling," he said. The event "opened my eyes that there was a whole generation of young adults that are really tuned in and want to make a change as far as faith."

He also was struck by the way the event "tied people together -- that same kind of faith-filled experience. Groups who go find a new dynamic and a new focus. It was such a free environment, and it amazed me that there was that much energy to fuel the whole atmosphere."

Sarah Hasemeier, a Hartwick College senior and vice-president of the Newman Club, will experience her first World Youth Day in Cologne. She was attracted by stories from previous events about meeting people from all over the world and experiencing the Stations of the Cross in a dozen different languages. She is also excited about seeing Pope Benedict XVI for the first time.

"I know that it is going to be a really great experience that I'll never forget," she said. "Everybody is there for one purpose: to celebrate God."

Saving up

Friends and family supported Ms. Hasemeier's trip; she also used some of her own savings.

"It's worth it," she explained. "I've never been to Germany or Europe at all. My faith is very important to me, and even in a world where people don't appreciate it, it's not something I'm going to give up easily. Even if the rest of the world fails me, it's something I know I can hold on to."

For Toronto alumna Erin Johnston, a Newman Club member from the Diocese of Syracuse, the highlight will be the papal Mass -- even if it's raining like last year, she said.

"I was standing out in the rain waiting for the Pope to drive by. Normally if you're all wet you'd go find shelter. But in this case, there was nowhere else you'd rather be," she explained.

Over there

Members of the youth group and confirmation class at St. Joseph's and St. John the Evangelist parishes in Rensselaer are already on their way to World Youth Day: They are spending two weeks touring the country before ending at Cologne, where they will stay at St. Agnes parish in Dusseldorf.

To prepare, the group met a number of times to discuss "the inner workings of what to expect and why we are going," according to John White, a catechist, parent and chaperone for the trip.

It's a tradition for the group to attend World Youth Day gatherings; members of the parish went to Rome in 2000 and Toronto in 2002. Mr. White said he wants students to learn that "they're not the only Catholics, that there are Catholics worldwide -- young adults that follow the message of Jesus," he said. "They're excited about it -- the message that is coming out of World Youth Day, that we have come to worship Him. They want to experience that."

On the agenda

The group is visiting Berlin, Dusseldorf, Oberammergau and other cities. They will also visit the concentration camp at Dachau, building on their trip last year to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

The teens have been working for nearly a year to raise enough money to go. Calendar drives, Irish nights, fund drives, dinners and letters to the business community netted enough to cover the trip for all of the teenagers.

"I'm really looking forward to it," Mr. White said of the trip. "I think [afterward] they have a deeper appreciation for life in general. It will be a new experience for us -- looking to see what the world community looks like that follows Jesus."

(8/11/05) [[In-content Ad]]