Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Benedict XVI told close to two million young Catholics from throughout the world ‘to share with others the joy of your Faith’ and ‘to be the Apostles of the 21st century’ at the closing Mass for the World Youth Day celebrations in Madrid on Sunday.

The Holy Father  (right) concluded six days of World Youth Day events, and his own four days in Madrid, with this message on evangelisation while concelebrating Mass on Sunday, at Madrid’s Cuatro Vientos airfield, alongside thousands of priests and bishops representing the 193 nations that sent young members of the Church to the celebrations.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, and Bishop Joseph Toal of Argyll and the Isles represented the Scottish hierarchy at WYD, while more than 300 pilgrims, representing each of Scotland’s eight Catholic dioceses, travelled to Madrid to celebrate their Faith with the Holy Father.

“I was delighted to be able to make contact with some of our Scottish pilgrims during the Catechism classes,” Cardinal O’Brien told the SCO. “For the young pilgrims it was not all play and no work. Intense study did place at the classes.”

Closing Mass

Organisers are estimating that close to two million pilgrims attended Sunday’s Mass, the majority of who had slept in the park on Saturday night following the Pope’s vigil, which was interrupted by a violent thunderstorm.

The pilgrims, however, woke up to brighter skies on Sunday morning and were ready to greet the Pope as he entered Cuatro Vientos in the Popemobile.

“I hope you were able to sleep a bit,” were the Pope’s first words to the pilgrims on Sunday morning, before he urged them in his homily ‘to strengthen this Faith which has been handed down to us from the time of the Apostles.’

“Today Christ is asking you the same question which he asked the Apostles: ‘Who do you say that I am?’” the Pope said. “Respond to Him with generosity and courage, as befits young hearts like your own.”

Echoing his message from his arrival in Madrid last Thursday, when he told young Catholics, ‘do not be ashamed of the Lord’ the Pope asked the young pilgrims to make Christ ‘the centre of your lives,’ while imploring them ‘not to keep Christ to yourself’ but ‘to share with others the joy of your Faith.’

“But let me also remind you that following Jesus in Faith means walking at His side in the Communion of the Church,” the Pope said during Sunday’s homily. “We cannot follow Jesus on our own. Anyone who would be tempted to do so ‘on his own,’ or to approach the life of Faith with the kind of individualism so prevalent today, will risk never truly encountering Jesus, or will end up following a counterfeit Jesus.”

The Pope said that the presence in Madrid of so many young people ‘is a wonderful proof of the fruitfulness of Christ’s command: “Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole of creation. You too have been given the extraordinary task of being disciples and missionaries of Christ in other lands and countries filled with young people who are looking for something greater and, because their heart tells them that more authentic values do exist, they do not let themselves be seduced by the empty promises of a lifestyle which has no room for God,” the Pope said on Sunday.

Vigil downpour

The previous evening, the Holy Father had to cut short his message at the WYD vigil as a thunderstorm swept across Cuatro Vientos.

The Pope was shielded from the heavy rainfall and winds. The stormy conditions, however, did not deter the pilgrims, many of who continued to chant the Pope’s name as they waited patiently for his message to resume.

As the weather began to settle, the Holy Father was able to partly finish the message, in which he urged young Catholics to ask God to help them discover their vocations in modern society and in the Church, while he also spoke about the indissolubility of marriage.

There were also very moving scenes at the end of the vigil as Cuatro Vientos fell into a deep silence as the Holy Father led the Eucharistic Adoration.

Madrid

Pope Benedict had arrived in Madrid on Thursday, spending four days in the Spanish capital, as part of six days of WYD celebrations. Many of the events and liturgy throughout the week paid tribute to Pope Benedict’s predecessor, Blessed John Paul II, who founded WYD in the 1980s and to whom last Tuesday’s opening Mass was dedicated.

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