THOUSANDS of young Irish devotees will descend on Madrid for World
Youth Day next week in a show of faith in the Catholic Church.
One-and-a-half million people have registered to attend next week's jamboree which will culminate in a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI.
And
hundreds of thousands of youngsters will camp out in sleeping bags on a
disused air strip in the city as a show of religious solidarity.
"You
will be exhilarated, you will be tired, you will be changed, you will
be different by the time you come back," its organisers pledge.
Amongst the crowd will be an estimated 3,000 young Irish people.
"Being a young Catholic in Ireland is not the easiest thing; it's not really seen as being cool," said Ian Rogers (22) from Dublin who is preparing for his second trip to the event.
"There were so many bad decisions made (in relation to the abuse scandals).
"Hopefully
people who are young and who have had all these things thrown at them
can see that there is an ugly side to religion but then there is a
beautiful side."
World Youth Day (WYD), which was started by Pope John Paul II in 1985, begins on Tuesday of next week and runs until Sunday.
Yesterday
a number of pilgrims from the Catholic Youth Care (CYC) organisation
were completing preparations at St Paul's Church on Arran Quay in
Dublin.
The group, which will bring about 150 of its members to
Spain, has been tasked with organising a series of catechesis discussion
sessions on the role of religion with bishops from around the world.
The
talks embrace a daily religious theme and feature question and answer
sessions between the audience and the bishops, followed by a Mass.
WYD,
which is celebrated in a different city every three years, also
incorporates concerts, theatre and discussion groups, all exploring the
relevance of religion.
Evangelisation officer Anna Keegan, one of
the CYC's organisers and a veteran of four WYDs explained that the
occasion is about a younger generation understanding their place in
religion.
"We look at why we believe and why we stay connected; it's all geared towards young people," she said.
Orla
Walshe (23) from Malahide in Dublin says young people need to be
encouraged to call themselves Catholics "instead of drifting, which a
lot of Catholics have done".