World Youth Day 2019 USA Leader Guides International Leader Guide | Page 19

Foundations: Pilgrimage and World Youth Day
In Kraków in the 1940s, a young Karol Wojtyła gathering of young people. It would take place
(who was studying in the underground on Palm Sunday in 1984 and be one of the last
seminary run by the Archbishop of Kraków) celebrations of the jubilee. The event was
was inspired and mentored by Jan Tyranowski, positive, and the following Palm Sunday was
a local tailor and ministry leader at the parish. then used to mark the United Nations’
Saint Stanislaus Kostka Church in Debnicki, International Year of Youth. The pope
run by the Salesians of Don Bosco, was a fitting instituted World Youth Day in December 1985.
setting for the seminarian’s formation. After Ever since, the Catholic Church around the
ordination, and despite Communist world has celebrated young people in local and
proscriptions against religious gatherings, global gatherings.
Father Wojtyła would go on regular outings
with young people that included prayer, Those who lead pilgrimages to World Youth
catechesis, and acts of service. He also held in- Day today follow in the footsteps of Karol
home Masses, saint-day social events, and went Wojtyła – and take from him the mantle to
on skiing and kayaking excursions. In fact, it teach, inspire, and accompany another
was during one of these outings in 1958 that generation of missionary disciples.
Father Wojtyła was summoned to Warsaw to
accept his appointment as the Auxiliary Bishop In the role of pilgrimage leader, there are
of Kraków. After the formalities in the capital several important principles to pass on to the
city were over, he returned to the young people pilgrims on their journey to Panamá for WYD:
and their canoes.
1. Remember that World Youth Day is a
pilgrimage (not a vacation).
These moments undoubtedly shaped the future
2. Encounter the Universal Church at
saint and likely influenced his desire to stay in
contact with youth and young adults after
World Youth Day.
3. Celebrate World Youth Day in
becoming pope in 1978. During the Jubilee
Year of Redemption (1983), commemorating
community and communion.
4. Be proud of your heritage of mercy as a
1,950 years since the death and resurrection of
Christ, the Holy Father called for a special
pilgrim from the United States.
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