World Youth Day 2008
In July 2008, a group of Georgetown students and chaplains will travel to the Philippines and Australia to take part in World Youth Day 2008 and the companion Jesuit-sponsored MAGiS08 program.
About World Youth Day...Organized by the Catholic Church, World Youth Day is a gathering of young people from around the world in order to build bridges of friendship and hope between continents, peoples, and cultures. An initiative of Pope John Paul II, the first World Youth Day was held in Rome in 1986. Each year since, World Youth Day has been celebrated at a diocesan level on Palm Sunday, and every two to three years a massive international gathering celebrates World Youth Day in a different host city. This year's gathering will involve a series of events held July 15-20 in Sydney, Australia, culminating in a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI on the final day.
According to the organizers' website, World Youth Day 2008 will allow "young people from throughout the world will make a pilgrimage in faith, meet, and experience the love of God. The young people will have an opportunity to rediscover their baptismal calling and the centrality of the sacraments of the Eucharist and reconciliation, and so discover a new apostolic zeal to witness more fully the Gospel in the modern world. All in the context of the beauty of Australia and the hospitality of the Australian people!"
To learn more about World Youth Day 2008, click here.
About MAGiS08...MAGiS is a long-term project designed to foster Ignatian Spirituality in young adults, with the aim of producing leaders—people with a sense of God’s place in their lives and a capacity to do something to build a better world.
MAGiS08 is the first major project under this ministry. It includes small-group "experiments" throughout Asia and Australia from July 5th through the 11th, followed by a three-day Ignatian Gathering of Jesuit university students from around the world at St. Ignatius College in Sydney, before the formal World Youth Day activities begin on July 15th.
Our Georgetown team's "experiment" will take us to the Payatas area of Manila in the Philippines. Payatas is the site of Manila's largest municipal garbage dump, where some of the poorest families actually live at, and off of, the dump. We will be working directly with the children of Payatas in hopes of touching their lives in a simple yet powerful way.
To learn more about MAGiS08, click here.
Ways to help...
In order to make this pilgrimage a reality, our team is engaging in both individual and collective efforts to raise funds in order to help cover the cost of our expenses. We are relying on the support of members of the Georgetown community and others who want to help us see our vision for this pilgrimage succeed. To make a contribution, please contact Fr. Patrick Rogers, S.J. at 202-687-8517.
The Georgetown World Youth Day 2008 Team would like to offer our sincere thanks to the following sponsors who are helping to make our pilgrimage this summer possible:
Church of the Holy Apostles, Gambrills, MD
Dahlgren Chapel Worshiping Community
Georgetown College
Georgetown University Jesuit Community
Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus
Students of Georgetown, Inc. (The Corp)
Did You Know...
...that World Youth Day is the largest youth gathering in the world? The 2005 gathering in Cologne, Germany attracted 435,000 registered pilgrims from 197 countries, 800 bishops and cardinals, and 7,000 international journalists. An incredible 1.2 million people attended the closing Mass.
...that Pope John Paul II was inspired to institute World Youth Day by his experience at the massive gatherings of young people in Rome celebrating the Youth Jubilee in 1984 and the United Nations International Year of Youth in 1985?
...that WYD 2008 will be Pope Benedict's second World Youth Day as pope?
...that our 2008 team will be following in the footsteps of other groups of students and staff who represented Georgetown at the World Youth Day gatherings in Paris in 1997, Rome in 2000, and Cologne in 2005?