Closer to the Church

Australia is the country that hosts, probably, the largest Greek community resident abroad. At the end of the 1980s estimates spoke of some 600,000 Greek immigrants. So it’s a nation in which the Greek youngsters due to participate in the next World Youth Day (WYD), to be held in Sydney from 15 to 20 July, ought to feel quite at home. Unfortunately the length of the journey and the high cost of flights will prevent many young Greeks from being present. According to what is reported by the official Greek WYD website, wyd.gr, a kind of Greek mission will open in Sydney on 7 July, and during it Greek youngsters will be given hospitality in the families of their compatriots. We spoke about the Greek participation in WYD in Sydney with Maria Delasouda, of the Youth Pastoral Service of the Greek Bishops’ Conference. (On the participation of youth from other countries see also SIR Europe 64/2007, 73/2007, 78/2007, 1/2008, and 8/2008).How many Greek youth will leave for Australia, and how will they be funded?“Ninety youngsters will set out from Greece. A part of the cost of participation, which amounts in total to roughly 1500 euros, will be paid by the Greek Bishops’ Conference. To this will be added a contribution from the individual dioceses. The rest of the cost will be up to the young participants themselves to cover”.How are you preparing for WYD in Greece? “Our preparation is based on a teaching aid specially prepared by the Youth Pastoral Service in collaboration with the WYD organizing committee. Various meetings and get-togethers both of the committee and the participants are planned. Various other fund-raising events and activities to help the participants prepare for WYD are also being organized. Moreover, there’s the official Greek website www.wyd.gr which provides all the necessary information”.What results do you hope to achieve from WYD for your Church and your country?“For Greece, WYD plays an important role in raising the awareness of youth in the Church. Such great religious events are impossible for us here. Since we are a minority, and since we have few young priests, the fact of being able to participate in so enormous a pilgrimage, and one so full of life, and of young people who pray, sing, and rejoice for the fact of being Christians, helps our community and our Church to pray with joy and to take initiatives on behalf of youth to enable them to be closer to the Church. But we also hope that WYD may help to reinforce the communion between Catholic youths themselves. It’s important, for example, to learn and experience new ways of prayer and catechesis, and in short to be more courageous in bearing witness to our faith in Christ. For the Greek youth witness is very important. The fact of being in communion and feeling the unconditional love of God who embraces us all, both in happy times and in those that are sad, is fundamental. All the more so if Catholics are also a minority”.What do you wish to bring as a gift to Australian youth? “To Australian youth we would like to give our happiness and our joy of being together with them and to testify that we have made a long journey and have received strength from the Holy Spirit for it. We have set out on the road, travelled from afar to arrive in Australia and be able to pray together with them and together with all young people from all over the world, to feel stronger the presence of God who says, ‘where two or three meet in my name, I am there among them’ (Mt 18: 20)”. Will you participate in the days in the dioceses before WYD and what diocese have you chosen? Unfortunately not, because the costs of the journey and participation would increase as a result”.Will there be an alternative programme for those youth who will remain in Greece, so as to give them the chance to follow WYD?“The youth who can’t travel to Sydney and normally participate in our spiritual preparation will be spiritually with us in Sydney, because we aren’t going to Sydney just for ourselves, but for the Greek Church as a whole. After WYD there will be meetings and minor events to recount and share what we experienced in Australia”.