In exactly a year young Catholics from around the world will be in Rio de Janeiro for the World Youth Day which is due to take place between 23 and 28 July 2013. Brazilian bishops are putting a lot into this event.
So it is no wonder that the start of the countdown in recent days became an occasion for a series of initiatives with young Brazilians taking centre stage.
The first initiative was the launch of the official prayer for WYD 2013 last week: Rio’s Archbishop Fr. Orani João Tempesta distributed it to a few thousand young people gathered in the heart of the city for a Eucharistic adoration.
The text was printed on a leaflet which contains pictures of the sponsors chosen for the World Youth Day in Rio.
But aside from these traditional forms of publicising the event, organisers are also getting the most out of social networks which are a crucial communication medium for the 2013 meeting. So prayer has already been turned into a YouTube video in which young Brazilians ask God to be allowed to be “the evangelisers the Church needs in the Third Millennium.”
Meanwhile, WYD Rio 2013 has become a lively topic of discussion on the event’s Portuguese Twitter account.
Another event scheduled for Sunday 22 will involve the whole of Brazil: in all the country’s dioceses, the young people’s pastoral care programme has organised a peaceful march called Bota fé na vida (Put faith into life).
This is the first time an event of its kind is held throughout the whole of Brazil at the same time and the idea is to spread the World Youth Day message through sport.
The meeting in Rio will of course take place on Copacabana beach, the location chosen for the Pope’s first meeting with the youngsters.
From here participants will have a five kilometre walk or run to complete.
This series of initiatives will culminate in next weekend’s meeting in Rio’s Maracanã stadium, one of the city’s symbolic locations.
The three day gathering - from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 - is called Preparai o Caminho (Prepare the way) and 50 thousand people are expected to attend.
It will give a taste of what is yet to come in the 2013 WYD celebrations, with Masses, testimonies, celebrations and acts of solidarity. Christian music which is extremely popular in Brazil will be a core ingredient of the event.
Celebrated speaker Fr. Reginaldo Manzotti – the Catholic answer to Brazilian television preachers will also be present.
His Evangeliza Show has earned him record audience numbers and on Twitter he is practically a rock star with as many as 100 thousand followers.