300 Filipinos leaving for Cologne
A stronger faith is the main hope for Filipino delegates to WYD 2005. Many have not managed to obtain visas from the German Embassy.
Manila (AsiaNews/Ucan) Young Filipinos going to Germany for World Youth Day say they hope to deepen and be inspired to live out their faith by taking part in what they regard as a pilgrimage, like that of the Magi visiting Jesus (bearing in mind the title of the meeting, "We have come to worship Him").
In a final meeting before heading to the August 16-21 celebration in Cologne, the 300 delegates articulated these and other expectations at a recollection held on 5 and 6 August at San Carlos Seminary in Makati City, just southeast of Manila.
The Catholic delegates, some veteran participants and others first-timers, were set to leave for Cologne in separate groups on August 9 and 14.
Among them is Jonathan Reyes, a 30-year-old investment firm analyst who has attended three previous World Youth Days. He considers the celebration "a venue for discernment of the deeper meaning of faith". Reyes also said he was covering his own expenses. Noting that each of his previous trips to the international celebration cost about US,200, he said he began saving for this year's event in early 2004. He and other delegates also from Novaliches diocese will stay with a host family in Cologne. Reyes admitted to wondering if World Youth Days would continue after Pope John Paul II died in April. The late pope initiated World Youth Day in 1985 and the celebration is considered to be one of his legacies. Weng Vallederos, a 21-year-old delegate from Manila archdiocese, will attend for the first time. The polio-afflicted journalism student plans to use a wheelchair for the 17-kilometer Way of the Cross on 19 August. Besides sharing in prayers and activities and making new friends, she hopes to go on from Cologne to Italy to meet people sponsoring her college scholarship in Manila. Recent experiences linked to her attending World Youth Day confirmed her belief that "God's will" rules. Her parish priest in Tondo, formerly Manila's largest slum area, chose to send her as a delegate despite her difficulty in walking. In June, the German Embassy in Manila denied her initial request for a visa, but her second request in July was approved.
Participants also said they were curious to meet Pope Benedict XVI, who is set to join the celebration in Cologne on 18 August. He is expected to lead an evening vigil and a night of song and dances on 20 August, before presiding over the closing Mass on 21 August, which in itself is the proper World Youth Day.
Stephen Borja of the Episcopal Youth Commission said that the pilgrimage to Germany would involve "search, encounter and conversion". In a message issued on 6 August 2004 announcing the 20th World Youth Day theme, Pope John Paul II urged young people "to follow in spirit the path taken by the Magi" and, like the Magi, to "learn to observe the signs with which God is calling us and guiding us".
At the 1995 celebration in Manila, the closing Mass drew a record crowd of around 4.5 million people in Luneta Park. Salesian Father Anthony Yatco, EYC executive secretary, said the country's "bad record" of illegal migration has kept prospective delegates from attending other World Youth Day celebrations. In 2002, the Philippine Church sent 500 delegates to Canada, and 200 more than this year. "Although some deserved to go, they were not allowed for reasons the embassy did not disclose", Father Yatco said. Even so, he acknowledged that a number of delegates did not return from the 2000 celebration in Rome. In June, the Catholic.org website reported that about 5% of the 345,000 delegates who registered for this year's celebration are from Asia.
Domestic issues are also at stake. Ruel Aguirre, a pastoral worker with the Youth for Christ Catholic renewal movement, said he hopes this year's delegates will show patriotism by "coming forward with a stand rooted in faith" when discussing issues that involve their country. Maria Cristina Guevara of the ecumenical Student Christian Movement of the Philippines said she believes Philippine youths have a "bleak future" under the current administration. She said she hopes the World Youth Day pilgrimage will inspire the young participants to serve as catalysts for change.
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12/08/2005
