World Youth Day: Cologne 2005

Contact Us • What is World Youth Day • Reunions • Itinerary

World Day Pictures Click <<Here>>

Sites and Sounds of World Youth Day 2005 - Sharing the Experience 

On November 12th –13th approximately 60 pilgrims out of the 150, who traveled from the Diocese to World Youth Day in Germany, gathered at Sacred Heart Church in Peterborough to reunite and, for the first time, share their experiences with each other and with the public at large. It was supposed to be more than a reunion; the idea was to share the unique spirit of WYD with the rest of the Diocese. Through slide show presentations, witness talks and lots of music pilgrims presented a taste of WYD Cologne and of the thing that took them there and bound them as a group — their Catholic faith. As the hundreds of pictures and video clips, projected onto an 11 x 14 foot screen, brought back tons of memories, people randomly told stories of their experiences from traveling to Holland and staying with host families for five days, going on to Cologne, Germany and seeing Pope Benedict XVI for the first time, all the way to topping off the trip with a four-day stay in Paris, France. There was still a sense of amazement at having been to three countries in Europe in three weeks, at having met millions of other Catholic youth and at recognizing how great and powerful our faith can be.

In recreating the spiritual atmosphere of World Youth Day Cologne the two-day event included some catechesis sessions led by six young adults from NET Ministries, which helped pilgrims answer the question: Now that we have been to World Youth Day what do we do to keep the spirit alive? Along with games, dramas and personal sharing the NET presenters set a positive high spirit which continued all weekend into Sunday. ‘Discovering God’s Plan For You’ was one of the talks led by NET which dealt with the question of what to do after WYD. It challenged the pilgrims to look at their individual lives, to reflect on where they were headed and to live a life of faith as young Catholics in rather secular world today.

On Saturday evening pilgrims walked from Sacred Heart Church to St. Alphonsus Parish for supper, another presentation and a ‘dance’, which was more of a fun-and-games carnival party and this, too, was part of WYD Cologne. Back at Sacred Heart there was an hour of adoration before retiring for the night at St. James United Church. (They had a bigger room to sleep in for the night!)

On Sunday morning the catechesis talk was entitled ‘Catholic Tools for Survival 101’ which addressed how to live out a Catholic life on a daily basis using the tools of prayer, the sacraments, fellowship and service. Bishop De Angelis came and celebrated the 11 am Mass at Scared Heart Church where a choir of our pilgrims led the congregation in songs, responses and cheers from WYD Cologne.