Somerset and Gloucestershire Young People Plan for Pope

21 July 2010

Another two meetings for young people preparing for the papal visit have taken place this week in Stroud and Taunton. Our Youth Ministry Coordinator Dave Wheat reports for cliftondiocese.com.

The evenings have been a great success and I am so pleased to have met so many young people in the diocese in such a short space of time. There is a real excitement about our pilgrimage to London in September and a sense of building a strong group of young people to lead and represent the diocese.

All of the evenings have started with an icebreaker game based on ‘you say we pay’ made famous by Richard and Judy. I can reveal that the Taunton group have topped the leader board with a record nine correct answers in just one minute.

The two meetings have been well attended this week with young people travelling a great distance to attend. In Stroud a lively group of 17 gathered to hear more about Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal John Henry Newman. One young person said: “There was a lovely atmosphere tonight, great pizza and getting to know people who will be on my coach was well worth the journey” The group was joined by Father Tom Smith, our Assistant Priest in Cheltenham and Mandy Baker, School Chaplain at Gloucester’s St Peter’s High.  They are two of the leaders who will be accompanying the young people to London on 18 September.

A group of nine young people battled their way through the Taunton rush hour to attend the second meeting of the week at St George’s Parish Centre.  After success in the icebreaker game we enjoyed pizza and shared our thoughts on modern day saints, and in particular John Henry Newman’s journey towards sainthood. Our part to play was covered in the third part of the evening and how the young people from the Clifton Diocese will be a in a group of only 4,000 young people eagerly awaiting Pope Benedict XVI’s blessing on the steps of Westminster Cathedral. Both evenings ended with the groups praying for Bishop Declan, our diocese and sharing in the diocesan prayer for the papal visit.

These for meetings for young people have been a fantastic opportunity to enter into the spirit of the papal visit and to begin our preparations for the day. Keep checking cliftondiocese.com for updates and dates of the next round of meetings on early September.  I encouraged the young pilgrims to keep in touch with all the updates on thepapalvisit.org.uk as well. These websites are both useful tools in their preparations.

Father Michael McAndrew is undertaking the important role of Clifton Diocese Papal Visit Coordinator.  Father Michael is ensuring the people making up the Catholic Church in the West of England have the latest news about the Holy Father’s historic visit.  Father Michael's most recent update was on cliftondiocese.com today (21 July).

We enjoyed two positive meetings last week in Bristol and Salisbury. 

Dave Wheat