Breda O’Brien: Negativity around Irish church not the norm worldwide
World Youth Day showcases the other side of catholicism and religous life
A nun looks on as pilgrims sleep at the Campus Misericordiae during World Youth Day in Brzegi near Krakow, Poland. Photograph: Agencja Gazeta/Kuba Ociepa
World Youth Day (WYD), an event instituted by St John Paul II as a regular gathering of young people, had about two million participants this year. In the US, more than one-third of seminarians in training cite attendance at a WYD as an influence on their vocation.
You could say it’s because anyone attending a World Youth Day (oddly named because the official programme is six days long) is likely to be open to the idea of a religious vocation, but pilgrims are a very varied bunch. They range from those who are at best not actively antagonistic to the church, to those who have a very deep Catholic commitment.