How time flies! Tomorrow's issue of L'Osservatore Romano reminds us all that it has been two years since the Holy Father announced the next WYD would be held in Madrid, at the end of the mammoth Mass that concluded WYD 2008 in Sydney's Randwick Racecourse!
On to Madrid:
Two years ago, Benedict XVI
closed WYD in Sydney
Translated from
the 7/23/10 issue of
"And now it is time to say goodbye, or rather, Arrivederci! Till we meet again! I thank you all for having participated in World Youth Day here in Sydney and I hope to see you again in three years. WYD 2011 will take place in Madrid, Spain".
It was July 20, 2008, at the end of his Angelus greetings that Benedict XVI announced the venue for the 13th World Youth Day celebrated on an international scale.
Now we are two-thirds of the way to WYD 2011 to be held August 16-21 in Madrid, when young Catholics from 170 nations are expected to converge.
After being held in Oceania for the first time, WYD comes back to Europe.
WYD through the years.
Already 600,000 have registered to be in Madrid next year - including 120,000 Italians, 70,000 French, 50,000 Poles and 25,000 North Americans.
The Archdiocese of Madrid and Spanish civilian authorities are preparing at all levels for a major international event.
[The article then quotes from the WYD news release yesterday, a translation of which was posted on this page earlier.]
On the eve of the audience he gave on July 2 to the sponsors of the Madrid WYD and the 'Madrid Vivo' Foundation, Benedict XVI was the first to register officially for WYD 2011.
Registrations can be done online 24/7 at
www.madrid11.com in 5 languages - Spanish, English, French, Italian and Polish. Registrants can choose one of four categories (individual, group, official, or journalist) and choose length of attendance (the entire week or just the weekend). Registrants can also indicate their choices for lodging and meals.
"Early registration is important," said Mons. Cesar Franco, auxiliary bishop of Madrid and general coordinator of WYD 2011. "We want to provide as best we can for our guests, so it is important to know how many are coming".
Registrants will be entitled to accident insurance during their stay, public transport, a backpack with T-shirt, cap, a guide to Madrid and the Missal for the ceremonies, a pass for all cultural events, and priority access to the reserved areas at the principal events.
Another element in the registration process is the possiblity of contributing to a solidarity fund to help young people from the poorer nations, especially from Latin America, to come to Madrid. Each registrant is encouraged to contribute an additional 10 euros for this purpose.
The organizers have launched an awareness and publicity campaign for the solidarity fund in Spanish and English on the Internet, press, radio and TV. Some 300 volunteers in different countries have been recruited for this purpose.
One of the more interesting news from the organizers recently was that the monumental Ostensorium of the Cathedral of Toledo will be used for the Eucharistic Adoration at the prayer vigil on August 20, 2011.
The monstrance, left, and the Cathedral of Toledo, one of the most impressive and largest of the Spanish cathedrals.
The three-meter (almost 10 feet, as tall as a building storey) gilded monstrance is one of the glories of Spanish artistry in metal. It has been called “the finest example of Spanish silverwork of all time”. It was created in 1524 by Arfe, metalsmiths specializing in ecclesiastic vessels and adornments.
Normally the monstrance is publicly displayed once a year during the traditional Corpus Domini procession through the streets of Toledo, Spain's primate See.
The Eucharistic Adoration led by the Holy Father will take place on August 20 at the Cuatro Vientos Airfield, where the vigil will be held on Saturday night.
Young people will be able to “contemplate and admire a work of art that is unique in the world and is being used as its creators imagined, and they will rediscover the value of art in the liturgy,” organizers said.
Sydney Daily Telegraph's front and back pages after the final WYD Mass in 2008.