Italy, Portugal, Poland

Italy: Pcl, X International Youth Forum”Learn to Love” is the theme of the 10th International Youth Forum taking place in Rocca di Papa, Rome, on initiative by Pontifical Council for the Laity, from 24 to 28 March. About 250 participants from about 90 countries and about 30 movements and communities from the five continents are expected. Cardinals Stanis³aw Ry³ko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and Carlo Caffarra, archbishop of Bologna, will open works on the first day dedicated to “The Vocation of Love”. Caffarra will present his report on “Created to Love: the Truth and Beauty of Love”. On 25th March, the programme includes a session of works on the theme “Love as a Choice for Life”, as well as the participation in the meeting of Benedict XVI with the young of Rome and Lazio, during which the 25th anniversary of the WYD will be celebrated. On 26 March, the subject will be sexuality, “Love: a Fecund Communion”, debated by several married couples and Msgr. Jean Laffitte, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, which will focus on the effects of sexual revolution in the context of the round table on “The Drifts of sexuality today”. On the other hand, “Preparing for Christian Marriage” will be the subject of the latest session of works, during which the training paths proposed in several countries in the world will be presented. Forum closing in St Peter’s Square, Palm Sunday, on 28 March; stage toward Madrid 2011.Portugal: 15,000 young people in Madrid”By the end of June, the Portuguese dioceses will have to have prepared the plan for joining in the World Youth Day (WYD) taking place in Madrid from 16th to 21st August 2011″: this is the decision taken in Fatima by the meeting of the directors of the diocesan departments of the Youth Pastoral Care. The director of the national department (Dnpj), father Pablo Lima, announced that “every diocese will have to contribute at least 50 volunteers to the Spanish event” and said that “a Volunteers’ Charter will be available from April 24th: it will state all the services, working methods and requirements for taking part in the Jmj”. As published on the official website of the religious event, www.jmj2011madrid.com, the Cross of the Day will stay twelve days in Portugal and will stop at Fatima Sanctuary on 14th and 15th August, and it will be paraded all through the 20 Lusitanian dioceses before moving on to Santiago di Compostela, on the occasion of the European Youth Pilgrimage. Dnpj estimates that “the WYD of Madrid will be attended by about 15 thousand young Portuguese, directly organised by the departments that are related to the Bishops Conference (Cep), while many others will certainly come with their own means or by joining the trips organised by the ecclesiastical movements”. During the same meeting, details were also provided as to the next national events organised by the Youth Pastoral Care, especially the calendar of Fatima Jovem, an event which will begin on May 1st (at 3.30 pm) with a concert by Banda Jota and which will include a Rosary, a Procession of Candles, and a Vigil, with moments of prayer, dialogue, reconciliation, workshops, movie festivals. The feast will end the morning after at 6 am, with Mass officiated in the basilica by mgr. Ilídio Leandro, bishop of Viseu, and an event called “Happy Mother’s Day” in the little Chapel of the Apparitions.Poland: diocesan centres to prepare the WYD180 priests, diocesan delegates, representatives of associations and movements recently met in Poland to prepare the WYD of Madrid 2011. “We intend to set up a preparation centre in every diocese – explained the director of the National Service for the Polish Youth Pastoral Care, Gregorio Suchodolski -. Each centre will have six sections that will take care of the material and spiritual preparation of the event. Spiritual preparation will be fundamental and will see our young people busy preparing, among other things, aids and materials for the purpose. Part of this process of approach to Madrid will be the International Youth Pilgrimage in Santiago de Compostela which they will take part in, in early August this year”. At the same time, “an external preparation” will also be taken care of, which consists, added the director, of “promoting the Madrilenian WYD all over Poland, informing people not only about the calendar and the events, but also about the culture and traditions of Spain. There will be some of our young people who will be working as volunteers in the Spanish Organising Committee, for which they will translate the contents of the official website of the WYD into Polish”. The Polish bishops hope that every parish will send at least 50 young people to Madrid. In 2000, 60 thousand Poles arrived in Rome; they hope they will outnumber them in Madrid.