tvc.dsj.org | February 5, 2019
IN THE CHURCH
9
As World Youth Day Closes, Pope Prompts Volunteers to Keep Serving
By Rhina Guidos
Catholic News Service
PANAMA CITY – Just before leav-
ing the physical and human warmth
of Panama January 27, Pope Francis
stopped to thank the thousands of
official volunteers, young and old,
gathered at the capital city’s Rommel
Fernandez Stadium to tell them that
they had just participated in an event
similar to one that took place early in
Christianity.
In their case, they didn’t just mul-
tiply food, he said.
“You could have easily chosen to
do other things, but you wanted to be
involved, to give your best to making
possible the miracle of the multipli-
cation, not only of loaves, but also
hope,” he said, telling the volunteers
to go out into the world and make
that attitude contagious. “We need
to multiply that hope.”
Volunteers at Panama’s World
Youth Day showed it was possible to
renounce one’s interests in favor of
others, the pope said.
“You made a commitment,” he
said. “Thank you.”
On stage, before the pope spoke,
Bartosz Placak of Poland offered his
testimony in Spanish to those gath-
ered at the stadium and said that
while volunteering for World Youth
Day in Panama, he had experienced a
taste of what living in the early Chris-
tian communities must have been
like: sharing food, homes, anything
other people needed.
“In sharing, you create a small
community and we return to the
times of the first Christians ... we fol-
low their example,” he said.
(Top left) Sandra Torres, Associate for the Hispanic Apostolate, accompanied the young
adult group from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish to Panama for World Youth Day. She and
Naomi Janet Martinez are pictured with their host family. Left, young adults from Our Lady
of Guadalupe Parish, join other youth in Panama for World Youth Day. Above, Amy Julisa
Mora-Lugo, Naomi Janet Martinez, Jennifer Sepulveda, Vanessa Sepulveda, Brenda Angel,
Yesenia Sepulveda, Abraham Lopez Horta Jr., Laura Gutierrez Quiroz.
Panamanian volunteer Stella Maris
del Carmen told the story of how she
had planned to attend the previous
World Youth Day, an event she’d
longed to attend since she was a
child. She had saved enough money
to go to Poland in 2016 and then her
grandparents died. She canceled her
plans and used the money she had
saved to tend to her family.
The pope said he was touched by
her story. By renouncing the trip for
the family, “you honored your roots,”
the pope told her. “That’s what makes
you a woman, an adult.” But then
consider what happened because of
that sacrifice, he said.
“The Lord had the gift of (World
Youth Day) waiting for you in your
homeland,” he said. “The Lord likes
to play those tricks. That’s how God
is.”
What a person gives to others “the
Lord returns” many times over, he
said. And the world needs more such
examples of surrender and love to
provide a “balm in the lives of oth-
ers,” he said.
Panamanians certainly had heed-
ed that counsel long before the event.
World Youth Day 2019 in Panama
may not have been the largest, in
ter ms of at tenda nce. Event off i-
cials say some 113,000 registered as
pilgrims to attend various events
– though it was obvious that many
more who did not register filled up
the venues.
What the event in Panama may
– or may not – have lacked in num-
bers, it made up for in its treatment
of young pilgrims. Priests, bishops,
women religious and thousands of
volunteers, young and old, officially
and unofficially, seemed to devote
more quality time to participants
than in the past, said pilgrims such
as Francisco Apenu Cofie of Ghana.
“It was more intimate,” said Cofie,
who attended World Youth Day in Po-
land and Brazil. Panama had a special
touch, he said.
Those like Polish volunteer Placak
said it was not always easy to help and
admitted moments of weakness, but
he said he learned powerful lessons
along the way.
“I have received more than what I
expected, and this is the mystery of
the divine gifts. I am happy,” he said.
Bishops Must Realize Seriousness of Abuse Crisis, Pope Says
By Junno Arocho Esteves
Catholic News Service
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT
FROM PANAMA – The primary goal
of the Vatican’s February summit on
clerical sexual abuse and child protec-
tion is to help bishops understand the
urgency of the crisis, Pope Francis said.
During a news conference with
journalists January 27 on his flight to
Rome from Panama, the pope said the
presidents of the world’s bishops’ con-
ferences have been called to the Febru-
ary 21-24 meeting at the Vatican to be
“made aware of the tragedy” of those
abused by members of the clergy.
“I regularly meet with people who
have been abused. I remember one
person – 40 years old – who was
unable to pray,” he said. “It is terrible,
the suffering is terrible. So first, they
(the bishops) need to be made aware
of this.”
The pope’s international Council of
Cardinals suggested the summit after
realizing that some bishops did not
know how to address or handle the
crisis on their own, he said.
“We felt the responsibility of giving
a ‘catechesis’ on this problem to the
bishops’ conferences,” he said. “That
is why we convoked the presidents”
of the conferences, the heads of the
Eastern Catholic churches and repre-
Pope Francis answers questions from
journalists aboard his flight from Panama
City to Rome, Jan. 27, 2019. Also pictured
is Msgr. Mauricio Rueda, papal trip planner.
(CNS photo/Paul Haring)
sentatives of the leadership groups of
men’s and women’s religious orders.
The meeting, he said, will address
“in a clear way” what protocols bish-
ops need to follow when handling
sexual abuse.
Asked about the expectations for
the meeting, especially the expecta-
tions of Catholics who have grown
frustrated with the repeated reports of
abuse and cover-up by some bishops,
the pope said people need to realize
“the problem of abuse will continue.”
“It is a human problem, a human
problem (that is) everywhere,” he said.
But if the church becomes more
aware of the tragedy of sexual abuse,
the pope said, it can help others face
the crisis of abuse, especially in fami-
lies “where shame leads to covering
up everything.”