preparing for WYD" "
European youth too have begun preparing for their departure for Toronto (Canada), where the 17th World Youth Day (WYD) will be held from 18 to 28 July, on the theme: “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world”. This year’s WYD is expected to involve some 25,000 volunteers, 129 parishes and 395 schools in the area which will provide a welcome and offer hospitality to the some 200,000 registered participants, even though it’s difficult to estimate the numbers of young people who will actually attend the WYD. In Europe it is Italy that will be sending the largest contingent to Toronto (18,500 youngsters), but also numerous will be the participation of the French (8,000), Spaniards (6,700), Germans (5,300), and Poles (4,400). “We will see each other again in Toronto, where I await you in large numbers”: So declared John Paul II in Ischia, in addressing the young. And at the end of his apostolic journey to Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, the Holy See confirmed: the Pope will be going to Toronto.
