Scottish Catholic Observer

Pupils from St Kentigern’s Academy, Blackburn, were among an 8000-strong gathering of young Catholics who participated in the Catholic Youth Ministry Federation Flame National Youth Congress at London’s Wembley Arena last Saturday.

The congress was organised as a day of prayer and praise for young Catholics in the UK and to help build on the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI’s state visit to the UK in September 2010.

Priests and religious gave keynote addresses and talks, while athletes also spoke to the young people ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will be held in London this summer.

Testimonies were heard from the Mizen family, whose son Jimmy was murdered in a south London bakery in 2008 and there was a short talk on silence from Fr Christopher Jamison, made famous through the BBC documentaries The Monastery and The Big Silence.

Speaking about the group’s experience at Wembley, a St Kentigern’s  pupil said the Scottish pilgrims (above) were ‘stunned at the amount of young people coming together to celebrate their Faith and take part in Flame 2012.’

“Despite not knowing what to expect, the group were all buzzing for the day ahead,” the pupil said. “Miss Queen—an RE teacher at St Kentigern’s—gave us all tartan hats as a gift and at first we were slightly embarrassed about the idea, but on arrival to Wembley Arena we were proud to be recognised as one of the only Scottish groups at the event.

“The atmosphere was incredible due to the band that was playing.  Thanks to Miss Queen booking in advance, we managed to settle in seats right in front of the stage in amongst our adopted Salesian family.

“The speakers were very inspirational and they encouraged us to follow our dreams.  We found Abdi from Kenya particularly inspiring when he talked of teaching karate to young children.  We also found the Mizen family incredibly admirable when they told us of how they had managed to forgive the people responsible for the death of their son.

“All in all, the weekend was fantastic and we well and truly felt ignited with the Catholic spirit when we left.”

Pope Benedict XVI sent a message of support to young Catholics attending the congress, in which he prayed that ‘the flame of Faith will continue to burn strongly’ in the young people, ‘so that they will become convincing witnesses of Jesus Christ.’