Texas Bishops and Youths Travel to Madrid to celebrate World Youth Day

Archbishop García-Siller celebrates Mass for the World Youth Day pilgrims at the Oblate Lourdes Grotto before their departure. (Photo copyright: Archdiocese of San Antonio)

Several of our Catholic Bishops are leading delegations of youthful pilgrims from across the Lone Star State to this year’s World Youth Day in Madrid through August 21.

World Youth Day is a worldwide encounter of thousands of Catholic young adults who gather in a different country every three years to experience the universality of the Catholic Church and to deepen their faith by means of prayer and the sacraments with the Pope Benedict XVI.

This year's Texas delegation includes Bishop Joe Vásquez of the Diocese of Austin; Bishop Daniel E. Flores of the Diocese of Brownsville; Bishop Michael Pfeifer of the Diocese of San Angelo, and Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Cantú of the Archdiocese of San Antonio--not to mention hundreds of teens from parishes and dioceses from across the state.

The Texas contingents have been travelling separately to Spain over the past few days in preparation for the festivities. Before departing, the pilgrims from the archdiocese of San Antonio gathered for a despedida Mass celebrated by Archbishop García-Siller at the Oblate Lourdes Grotto, in which he imparted a blessing upon the travelers. Bishop Oscar Cantú, the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, will be travelling to Madrid with the pilgrims; you can read updates about his experiences on the pilgrimage on his blog here.

Bishop Flores celebrates Mass with the Brownsville delegation to World Youth Day.  (Photo copyright: Cesar Riojas)

Bishop Flores also celebrated Mass with the pilgrims from his diocese at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle-National Shrine, encouraging them to “. . .ask the Lord to keep us mindful of his presence, not just when we get there, but along the way. Let us be grateful that we will be able to join all the many, many people from throughout the world to celebrate our faith in the Redeemer, but also his love, his love for the world.” You can read more about the Brownsville World Youth Day delegation online here.

Before setting off for Madrid himself, Bishop Pfeifer blogged about World Youth Day, stating, “Blessed John Paul II, guided by the Holy Spirit, gave many wonderful gifts to our Catholic church as our pope, and one of the special gifts he has left us is this joyful and exciting worldwide gathering of youth. WYD is a splendid opportunity for the youth of the world to be with the Vicar of Christ, our Holy Father, and to experience in a personal way the love that the pope has for all the youth.”

The Diocese of Victoria will have 30 young adults participating in the event as well, who pray that their experience will helped them in their path to be “Rooted and Built Up in Jesus Christ, Firm in the Faith” (cf. Col 2:7) .(Photo copyright: The Catholic Lighthouse © 2011)

“My great wish for all who have the joyful opportunity to share in this unique celebration is that God’s Holy Spirit will fill all with a new spirit of love, faith and hope and bring all of us together in the new spirit of justice and peace for all humankind. May Christ our Good Shepherd bring safety and joy to all those who travel to be with Him and our Holy Father in Madrid, and may Mary our Mother watch over us and protect us as we strive to capture her spirit of total surrender to our God and God’s plan for the world.”

Those pilgrims traveling with Bishop Vásquez of the Diocese of Austin to World Youth Day have set up a special page to blog about their experiences online here.

For the first time ever, individuals can make a virtual pilgrimage to World Youth Day on www.virtualworldyouthday.orgwww.virtualworldyouthday.org, where individuals can create an avatar and use it to participate in the virtual pilgrimage. A Facebook fan page has also been created at www.facebook.com/VirtualWorldYouthDay. A delegation of participants from various U.S. dioceses will contribute to a blog and share photos and other media from the event on this page.

Related Links:

Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Cantú's Blog from World Youth Day

Diocese of Austin's World Youth Day Blog

Attend the Virtual World Youth Day Online