The Eastern Samar Team Blog

WORLD YOUTH DAYS, The Journey of the Youth: Next Stop - Sydney

During the World Youth Day celebration in Rome, Italy last Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul II clearly emphasized why he established the gatherings of youth. Responding to the comment of one bishop who upon seeing the multitudes of young people quipped, “The future of the Church is here” the late Pope said, “The youth are the present. If they are the future, then when the future comes they will be no more” because they have already become adults.

Pope John Paul II believed in the youth. He believed in them that he considered the youth not as future but as the present of the Catholic Church. And he constantly encouraged the youth by repeating each time he was with them, “Do not be afraid.”

The first official World Youth Day gathering was in 1986. The United Nations declared 1985 as the International Year of the Youth. Before that the Holy Father has already gave a special mission to the youth of the world during the closing of the Holy Year in 1984 when he entrusted a wooden cross to them to be sent on a pilgrimage.

“My dear young people, at the conclusion of the Holy Year, I entrust to you the sign of this Jubilee Year: the Cross of Christ! Carry it throughout the world as a symbol of Christ’s love for humanity, and announce to everyone that only in the death and resurrection of Christ can we find salvation and redemption”(Rome, 22^nd April 1984).

And unlike the UN, the Holy Father did not stop declaring each year as “year of the youth.” By establishing the World Youth Days, he made the youth truly the present. Each year, youth would gather, in Rome and in another place chosen by the Pope himself.

The first gathering outside of Rome took place in 1987 in Buenos Aires, Argentina; then in Santiago de Compostela, Spain in 1989; followed by the gathering in Czestochowa, Poland in 1991; Denver, Colorado, USA in 1993; Manila, Philippines in 1995; Paris, France in 1997, Ontario, Canada in 2002, and Cologne, Germany in 2005.

This coming year, 2008, the next gathering of the youth will be in Sydney, Australia.

The Manila Experience

I was a senior Philosophy Seminarian of the St. Vincent de Paul College Seminary (SVPCS), Calbayog City, when I first attended the World Youth Day. And it was because Manila hosted the gathering! This celebration was so far the record holder in the number of participants to the Final Mass with the Holy Father at an estimated 4,000,000 people.

That Manila WYD experience was so inspiring! Even the Pope enjoyed the occasion. It was even considered as the best ever celebration since the youth gatherings was established. The pope was so youthful during that gathering that he even toyed with his cane during the last day of the gathering at the Rizal Park. He also declared there that he so wanted to be one with the youth that he even said that he wanted to be called by his nickname Lolek because “John Paul is an old man; Karol is a middle-aged man.” He smiled satisfactorily when we chanted “Lolek! Lolek!”

He enjoyed it so much when we started doing the wave. The delegates form Bacolod actually started the act and others enthusiastically and generously followed. Those who were watching the TV told us afterwards that it looked so great seeing the wave of hands move from left to right and from front to rear.

Probably, if the Pope could just stay much longer in Manila he would have done so. If he could only extend the schedule he would do it. He loved the Philippines and he believed in the Filipino youth so much that he even challenged Pinoys to be the bearers of Christianity to all of Asia!

“The Philippines has a special mission to Asia,” he declared in one of his messages.

The Chance of a Lifetime

Aside from the Manila WYD, I was also able to attend the Jubilee Year gathering of the youth in Rome. The attendance was not expected, it was not even planned. Actually after the Manila experience I did hope to be able to attend all the other celebrations but being a poor young man I knew it would be impossible to do so. WYD 1997 in Paris would remain a dream.

In December of 1999, I was appointed as Youth Leader in our parish, the Parish of St. Ignatius of Loyola which corresponds to the Municipality of Sulat, Eastern Samar. I was given the task by our parish priest, Rev. Fr. Agustin “Boy” Opalalic, Jr., of preparing the youth of the parish for the forthcoming Diocesan Youth Day to be held in the Parish of the Immaculate Concepcion in Guiuan. The months that followed were filled with the necessary preparations including spiritual, cultural and financial. The gathering in Guiuan was really memorable.

Before we left the parish, our Diocesan Youth Director, Rev. Fr. Juderick Paul “Odick” Calumpiano, met the respective parish youth leaders and coordinators in order to announce the need for a representative to attend the National Conference for Youth Ministers (NCYM) in Cebu. He told us that the diocese ought to have at least representative to that gathering. The conference would start in about four days. However no one was enthusiastic about attending because the recent activity for the following reasons: many youth coordinators and leaders work and they just applied for leave during the Diocesan Youth Day and another weeklong leave for the NCYM would not be advisable, the conference was so close and the just-concluded activity was so tiresome many wanted to have a rest, and everyone was financially incapable especially that the diocese would only shoulder the registration of P 1,000.00. And it would only be reimbursed. The representative would have to spend his or her own money in order to attend the conference in Cebu.

Feeling a bit adventurous, I volunteered to represent the diocese though at the back of my mind I was already groping for ways of raising the money because I did not have any centavo to spend. And the trip would cost a total of P 3,000.00 for registration and fare alone!

When I arrived at our parish my sister told me that a relative from Aklan has sent a check in the amount of P 1,500.00 for a personnel newsletter which I have been printing called “amici” plural of amicus, Latin for friend. The news somehow made feel better. I only have to look for the other half of the needed amount for my Cebu trip. Then my parish priest gave me P 500.00 and a cousin donated P 1,000.00. The required amount was complete. It was enough for me. (And it would prove to be the first of the many travels I would be making for the sake of the youth ministry with the money in my pocket just enough for the trip – none for pasalubongs and for anything else )

To make the trip short, I was already at the Cebu Convention Center where the conference was being held when the chance of a lifetime happened. We were told that during the occasion the regional representatives to the World Youth Day would be chosen. These representatives were to be financed by then Archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin. This will be the second time he would be doing it. The first time was during the gathering in Paris. The Manila experience seemed to have inspired him so much that he promised to support some youth that would come from the various ecclesial regions to every WYD onwards.

The Drawing of the Lots

When the regions broke into the respective groupings and discussed how they would select their representatives, the Central – Eastern Visayas Region, popularly known as the PaCalBoCaNa (for Palo, Calbayog, Borongan, Catarman, Naval) and DuCeTagMaTa (Dumaguete, Cebu, Tagbilaran, Maasin, Talibon) Sub-Regions, decided to do it by drawing lot. We wrote the names of our respective dioceses and the Regional Youth Director, Rev. Fr. Tupas of the Archdiocese of Cebu that time, held it. He requested the lady youth coordinator from the Diocese of Calbayog to pick the lucky diocese (rather blessed perhaps because religion is not a matter of luck ) to have the opportunity to send a representative to the World Youth Day in the year of the Jubilee!

When the rolled paper was already in the hands of Fr. Tupas, he asked the body if it was okay to unroll the paper in a way that the last letter of the diocese would be read first so that there would be more excitement. And Excitement they really had except for me (because it was my first time to be with the group and I felt somehow a stranger with them then)! When the first letter that appeared was “N” everyone who came from a diocese that doesn’t have the letter in their diocese’s name sighed and the others had their eyes somehow got rounder. Since it was my first time to be with the group I didn’t comment when everyone mentioned Catarman, Tagbilaran and Talibon as the probable dioceses. Even Maasin got mentioned but since they were the first blessed diocese to send a representative to the Paris WYD, they were already exempted this time.

Then the next letter appeared. It was “A”. Everybody teased the representative from Talibon that he is out of the race already. Only Catarman and Tagbilaran were being mentioned again. Since my childhood I have never won in any raffle and I thought this is just one of those times. Anyway, I told myself, it was not automatic that I would be the one to be sent in case Borongan would be the blessed diocese. I was new to the ministry after all.

Then the paper got unrolled to show the third to the last letter of the name of the diocese written in that piece of paper. When the letter appeared it showed that those who were around did not expect that the diocese to have the chance to send a representative to the WYD was this diocese that most often than not fails to send a representative to regional meetings and activities. The letter that appeared was “G” and since only Borongan has that letter, everybody knew it would be the Diocese of Borongan that would be sending a representative.

Why Borongan got so lucky or blessed could not be guessed.

In Rome

But the best thing that came out of it was that since I was the only one from Borongan who attended the conference, my youth director had nothing to say but “ikaw man an nakadto, imo na gad iton.”

This was just the first phase of the journey. The next one was the processing of my passport. But I won’t linger on it anymore. The most important thing is that I was able to attend the World Youth Day! Our first visit was Perugia. For almost a week we were there as visitors of the Diocese of Perugia. During World Youth Days, there is that so-called Days in the Diocese wherein a Diocese of the Host Country accommodates youth from other countries. The facilitators during our stay at Perugia were the members of the French community, Chemin Neuf (in English, New Way). It was a spiritually re-invigorating experience as we actively participated in all the activities initiated by the community and the exchanging of souvenir items with fellow youth pilgrims. There were singing and dancing, praising and worshipping, sharing and meditation, and religious enjoyment. Filipinos were somehow very special during this occasion because of the Jubilee Song which Pinoy youth sing and dance with so much gusto! It was an occasion of feeling being a citizen of the world with all the other people from the five continents being represented there: African, Asian, American, European. There were even young ones from other religious denominations who wanted to experience being with other youths because they do not have the same gatherings.

After the week-long gathering at Perugia which was punctuated by a 14-kilometer pilgrimage to Assisi, home of Sts. Francis and Claire, we were transported to our assigned school in Rome where we would be staying for the next five days in order to participate in the main World Youth Day activities.

The streets of Rome were flooded by various flags of the different nationalities. Each we pass by one group of youth from another country we would say “Mabuhay!” and they would respond with their “Viva!”, “Long Live”, or any other catchphrase. In Rome we were able to see the St. Peter’s Basilica, a first time for most of us. We also visited the St. Mary Major, St. Paul’s, St. John Lateran, and the other great churches. We also had the chance to toss coins at the Fountain of Trivi, watch artists in the piazzas, ride on their efficient underground train system, watch fellow Pinoys trying to ride busses in the intersections being snubbed by drivers, walk long distances even at nighttime because public transport are not allowed to go beyond some roads, ride the exact bus and unload in the exact terminal because there is an efficient number system being followed by all public transport, keep our seat in a bus because the elderly won’t require you to stand in order to give them the seat because you have it first and it is yours, eat Pinoy food in Pinoy homes, meet fellow Asians during the gathering in one of the parks of the city, and more.

Tor Vergata

Most amazing was being a part of the group which sang the Jubilee Song during the vigil at Tor Vergata. Being one of the regional representatives I had the privilege of taking part in the activity. But I was so conscious that I might ruin the song I had to do “lip sing”. We were just twenty meters away from the Pope. I could have gotten nearer. Many young people wanted to come nearer by running the stairs of the stage. One young Hispanic girl ran up so fast. Her coming was so strong that the member of the Swiss Guard in coat who tried to stop her seemed to have been hit by a vehicle, he was toppled down and he got a fractured arm.

Actually we had the chance of getting closer to him, about four meters away, when he passed our group gathered at the backstage at the vigil site when he arrived in the afternoon upon his pope mobile. He smiled sweetly when he recognized the Filipino youth in their Jubilee year t-shirts. Cardinals from all over the world also passed our group and many of them acknowledged the good traits of the Filipinos having visited our country at least once, especially during the World Youth Day in Manila. Those who have not yet visited the Philippines said they would love to see the country.

After the vigil, we had to sleep in the open field of Tor Vergata, one of Rome’s universities, enjoy the mysteries of the universe as the stars above us twinkle, and then get drenched by the dew as the morning sun start to greet us to the closing activities of the World Youth Day.

The final mass during after the vigil was so solemn. Under the heat of sun now after being dead wet by the dew earlier this morning, we listened to the final message of the Pope. He really cared for the youth and he challenged the youth to respond to the call of God and be the saints of the new millennium. He repeated the same words he used to tell the youth in all the world gatherings of the young: “Do not be afraid.” And he spoke to the young in various languages including Tagalog.

The field became a universe of languages when everyone recited the Our Father in his respective tongue. And when the Jubilee Song was sung after the WYD theme song of “Emmanuel” the Philippine Flag was among of those which were focused on the screen waving.

The Next World Youth Day

As we leave Tor Vergata some Canadians of Filipino parentage called upon us and invited us to join them on the next World Youth Day in Toronto. I just smiled. I told myself, “My next World Youth Day will be wherever God will send me once again.”

Could it be Sydney?

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Next year, the World Youth Day will take place in Sydney, Australia. We hope to be able to send representatives, both youth and media reprentatives, to that gathering of the youth from all over the world. Through your help we could do so. For every subscription to the Eastern Visayas Mail and the Eastern Samar Reporter, we will donate 10% of the subscription rate to this purpose. For more information contact Lance AC Acampado at 0921-4946612. Thank you very much and mabuhay ang kabataang Pinoy!

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Lance AC Acampado A dedicated family man, a former cadet, an ex-seminarian, youth minister, public servant, blogger and regular contributor to the Eastern Samar Reporter.