The History of 'World Youth Day'

The idea to create World Youth Day was conceived in the extraordinary Holy Year 1983-1984.Don Massimo Camisasca of "Communion and Liberation," asked: "In this Holy Year, why don't we also hold an international meeting of youth?"

ROME (Zenit) - Here is the history of World Youth Day as told by , president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, at a Mass to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the San Lorenzo International Center.

In 1983, Cardinal Cordes was the vice president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. The youth center, located near St. Peter's Basilica, was inaugurated by Pope John Paul II on March 13, 1983.

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The idea to create World Youth Day was conceived in the extraordinary Holy Year 1983-1984. The Eternal City was invaded by associations, societies, fraternities and groups of all sorts.

One of the volunteers of the San Lorenzo International Center (established near the Vatican 25 years ago by Pope John Paul II), Don Massimo Camisasca of "Communion and Liberation," asked: "In this Holy Year, why don't we also hold an international meeting of youth?"

I replied: "The idea is interesting, but who could organize it?"

It seemed obvious to me that such an event exceeded completely the possibilities of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and that it could only be achieved provided that those involved in all the new spiritual initiatives that were collaborating in the center were committed to it.

We brought them together and were able to get their acquiescence, against the view of some of their leaders who, because of bad experiences in a similar meeting held in the 1975 Holy Year, had many reservations. However, thank God, the skeptics were unable to affect the fresh serenity and necessary youthful impulse of the others.

The closer we came to the first youth day the stronger was the resistance from outside. We received critical comments from some of the dioceses we had invited, such as: "It is not the Vatican's domain to be concerned with our young people."

At the last minute, the Communist mayor of Rome withdrew the authorizations already granted, making it impossible to prepare the planned camping tents in Rome's Pineta Sachetti park and to install the assigned dwellings there.

The ecologists were joined by journalists to raise the alarm about the immediate devastation of the city's gardens and public areas. Newspaper articles appeared with headings such as, "The Huns Are Coming."

And yet, despite our total inexperience with regards to mega-meetings of this sort, and the obstacles placed, the great number that attended was a triumphal success. Something like 300,000 young people accepted the Pope's invitation and participated in Mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square.

The throng of foreigners was far greater than expected, yet everything unfolded in a very orderly and exemplary way, to the surprise of the whole world. The 90-year-old Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, who had followed some phases of the youthful celebration from the terrace of the Vatican basilica, observed: "Not even the oldest Romans can recall something like it."

In the Council for the Laity we spent all our physical strength for the event. For half a year we had nothing in mind other than the youth day. We put everything else to one side. That they would reproach us for having believed in it and wanted to organize it with all our strength, in fact, turned out to be true; we paid our debt to the world's youth to the last cent.

Obviously, Pope John Paul II thought otherwise. Shortly before the summer holidays, he said to us: "The United Nations has proclaimed next year the Year of Youth. Should we not invite the world's youth to Rome again?"

On hearing the suggestion, it is understandable that our enthusiasm was very restrained. There was very little time left for preparations, given that the break for summer holidays with two months of interruption, was at our doors, and the date to be establish was again Palm Sunday, not to mention the fact that we would not have been able, over half a year, to count on the commitment of groups of the center for the new youth day.

On the other hand, we had to say yes to the Pope, above all because he was the Pope, and then because we had seen for ourselves that the first youth day had meant a great impulse of faith for very many young people.

Our willingness to obey soon found an unexpected echo, which removed many of our concerns: Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolares, put all the forces of her movement at our disposal, so that we were able to lean on an experienced organization.

For the second time, the young people's participation was oceanic. At the closing liturgy in front of the Lateran basilica, close to 250,000 people were counted. In the Council for the Laity we would have liked to have closed the chapter on "youth" for a while. We had many other obligations.

On Holy Monday, at the brink of extenuation, I escaped to Germany to be able to sleep at last and to recover to a degree from the exhaustion. On Easter Sunday I followed the televised broadcast of the liturgy in St. Peter's Square. The homily of the still young Pope enthused me, but a passage irritated me.

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Very energetically the Pope said these phrases: "I met last Sunday with hundreds of thousands of young people, and I have, imprinted on my soul, the festive image of their enthusiasm. I am hoping that this wonderful experience might be repeated in future years, giving origin to World Youth Day on Palm Sunday." The Holy Father had enjoyed it and had established a new practice in the Catholic Church

So began the celebration of World Youth Day, which various countries of the world have hosted, alternating international meetings with others held in local Churches.

They were inaugurated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and followed by Spain, the United States, Europe and Asia. Of special importance were the meetings of Paris and Rome during the Holy Year of 2000.

The numerical summit was reached in the Philippines, where some four million people gathered in celebration. The media were in agreement in commenting that the family of nations had never attended an event in which such a great multitude of people participated, voluntarily and with great joy.