Some 35,000 ministrants from Germany will take part in an international pilgrimage to Rome on 1-2 August. The number of German participants has doubled over the last such meeting in Rome, held in 2001. The German group will in fact be the largest group among the participants: over 40,000 boys and girls from 17 countries are expected to attend the event called “Spiritus vivificat”. The climax of the event is the international programme to be held in St. Peter’s, accompanied by a series of events at the diocesan level in Rome and in neighbouring localities. The German youth will be accompanied by thirteen bishops and auxiliaries. A Mass in various languages, officiated by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna, will be celebrated in St. Peter’s Square on 1st August; it will be concelebrated, among others, by Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück, chairman of the youth pastoral commission of the German Bishops’ Conference. The international pilgrimage of ministrants is held roughly every five years and is organized by the CIM (Coetus Internationalis Ministrantium), an association of European pastoral volunteers founded in 1960.
