As World Youth Day 2013 approaches, groups from Ireland and
elsewhere, are well advanced in their plans to participate. At the end
of October 2012 booking opened for the event which will be held from
23rd -28th July 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the Tuam archdiocese young people hope to have ‘a World Youth Day experience’. They will not go to Rio due to cost and safety reasons, so instead they hope to take the Camino pilgrimage walk in Spain, finishing in Santiago de Compostella. There is an information evening in Castlebar on Wednesday 9th January where those interested can familiarize themselves with the Camino and choose possible dates. It is hoped that two groups of about a dozen people will travel.
Catholic Youth Care in the Dublin area hopes to take a group to Rio and details are being finalized. While the MSC (Missionaries of the Sacred Heart) have already organized a group and organizers and stated:
“We’ll join over 3,000,000 other young people from around the world next for two week this coming July. WYD is a fantastic occasion for people to gather together, to celebrate their faith, and have an unforgettable time.”
MSC have some Irish and English young people travelling including two from St. Albans, two from Princethorpe College, one from Liverpool and one from Drimoleague. They will travel with the pilgrimage from the Archdiocese of Westminster. During the course of the event they will also link in with other MSCs from Venezuela, Indonesia, Canada and Brazil itself.
The WYD week includes a wide variety of activities and celebrations, most of which is in the Copacabana Beach area. There will be afternoon catechesis, tours of the local sights including the world famous Christ the Redeemer, volleyball on the beach, open mike and concert sessions, as well as a variety of liturgical celebrations and the final mass with the Pope.
Magis Ireland is linking with the British Province of the Jesuits to facilitate a joint group of 20 people to take part in MAGiS-WYD in Brazil.
The British Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and members of the Ignatian Family in Britain also hope to do a series of MAGiS experiments with an ecology focus in Kent catering for a maximum of 25 participants from the UK and Ireland (10 from Ireland).
They will then travel together to a faith festival for young adults with a big screen link up with Rio de Janeiro.
The most recent announcement from Brazil by the WYD organisers is the ‘social legacy’ projects to tackle youth drug abuse in Brazil. One of the projects, is the bus called "Passporte da Cidadania" (Citizenship Passport), and another more long term action will work more objectively with drug addicts.
The Episcopal Vicar for Social Charity, Manuel de Oliveira Manangão, said that there is a need to start a process of prevention in parishes, schools and communities in order to help young people to realize that the drug use is pointless.
The project will also involve building a network between both civil and catholic care groups involved in treating people living with drugs.
“The network is a mechanism to easily refer a particular person somewhere else. The third step is a triage centre. It will probably be the Providence Clinic. It will focus, from now on, in a little more of the reality of 'addiction' " Manuel de Oliveira Manangão explained.
The coordinator of the “Pastoral do Menor” (Under Age Pastoral), Maria Christina Sa, who is part of the WYD Committee, said that street-children are involved with drugs because they are seeking a sense of fulfilment or belonging.
The special bus will be equipped with a range of technologies, to promote the inclusion of these young people in society. It will go to places where there is a higher concentration of drug addicts.
“In the bus, there will be IT technicians, social workers, psychologists and educators ," said Maria Christina Sa.