The courage to change

Continues our survey on the presence on European youth at the forthcoming World Youth Day held in Sydney on July 15-20 2008. Now it’s the turn of Ivana Petrak, from the national office of youth pastoral care office of Croatia’s Bishops Conference who reported the proceedings to SIR Europe. (Previous reports in SIR Europe 21-22-23/2008).How many people will be leaving for Australia and how will they find financial support?“From Croatia will be leaving 300 young people in cooperation with the local Bishops Conference. They will be joined by 350 more from the neo-catechumenical movement. They all will be providing for their own expenses, although some enjoy the support of their dioceses. The youth will be joined by a bishops who will also be leading the catechesis”.How are you preparing for the Day?“Preparations are taking place at diocesan level. They are addressed to those who intend to leave for Sydney and to those who will be staying home to follow the Wyd. Three meetings in view of the Wyd are scheduled for the forthcoming months. They will be devoted to prayer and to Catechism on the Holy Spirit, the topic of the Wyd. The national office for youth pastoral care of Croatia’s bishops conference prepared a series of guidelines and documents on this topic. There is also a description of Australia with useful information on how to get around without difficulties”. Which fruits do you hope Australia’s Wyd will bear for your Church and Country? “We hope to receive renewed impetus and enthusiasm for our faith to be returned to the communities of origin, to cities, working environment and families. Feeling part of the universal Church is fundamental for us. It gives us the courage to change, to testify a more adult form of faith, and enables us to change and improve the world.” What do wish to give to Australia’s youth? “Firstly our prayers, so that all the efforts made in the organization are rewarded with a large participation by the youth and witness for Australia. We will also be sharing our culture, traditions, friendship and joy to create the right atmosphere of prayer and peace”.Will you take part in the dioceses days preceding the Wyd? To which Australian diocese will you be going? “Young Croatians will all be hosted in the diocese of Broken Bay (July 10-14) where a rich program of events and initiatives is being set up”. What will you be doing for all those young people who cannot afford to go to Sydney? “In the same days of the Wyd we will be hosting an important event, whose details have been developed these days. It will be attended also by youth from Bosnia-Herzegovina”. Germany: twinning between Cologne and Lithuania Next July, 600 young people from the archdiocese of Cologne will be going to Sydney (Australia) for the 23rd Wyd, along with friends from the twinned Lithuanian of Kaunas and Vilnius. The youth will arriving with different flights at the beginning of the month and will participate in “The Days of the Dioceses”, organized by the archdiocese of Melbourne in its twelve parishes. In this way, the youth will have the opportunity of meeting their Australian peers, their families and their friends, their culture, the Country and the ways they practice their faith. On July 14 they will be leaving Melbourne headed to Sydney, where, the following day, Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, will be inaugurating the Wyd. The three-days’ programme includes participation to the reception for the Pope on July 17, the Via Crucis in the centre of Sydney on July 18. along with major catecheses with German-speaking bishops. The trip to Sydney is organized by Germany’s Young Catholics Federation (Bdkj), by the Jugend 2000 association and by the office for school pastoral care of the archdiocese of Cologne. Parish priest Mike Kolb, from the diocese’ youth pastoral care office, expects from this trip “that the youth grasp the Spirit of God and strengthen their faith. They will return home as true witnesses of Jesus Christ and will live the joyful power of faith in our archdiocese”.