Young People Prepare for Papal Visit

14 July 2010

On Monday (12 July) and Tuesday (13 July) young people gathered together from across the diocese to prepare for the Holy Father’s Historic visit.  Our Youth Ministry Coordinator Dave Wheat writes with the details for cliftondiocese.com.

An excitable crowd gathered at the diocese’s administrative offices, Alexander House, in Bristol on Monday and an enthusiastic group met at St Osmund’s Church in Salisbury on Tuesday.  They came to hear more about the youth event Pope Benedict XVI will lead at Westminster Cathedral and Hyde Park on Saturday 18 September.

We began with a message from Bishop Declan who shares in the current excitement.  He passed on his best wishes and prayers to all the young pilgrims for their preparations for this momentous day.  We all tucked into pizza before we introduced ourselves and begun to learn a little more about Pope Benedict and why he is visiting the United Kingdom.

Cardinal John Henry Newman who will be declared ‘Blessed’ by Pope Benedict in Birmingham was the focus for the second part of the evenings. We discussed what effect Cardinal Newman has on the Catholic Church and it’s teaching today and why he is on the journey to sainthood. The third part of the evenings introduced the practical side of the day in London, with some important information including travel arrangements, safeguarding requirements, a schedule of the day and the media interest in the Pope’s visit.

I encouraged the young pilgrims to keep in touch with all the updates on cliftondiocese.com and thepapalvisit.org.uk. These websites are both useful tools in their preparations.

Towards the end of the evenings the prayerful and reflective side of the papal visit was introduced with the encouragement to pray for the success of the visit and the preparations in our own diocese.

The evenings ended with each of the young pilgrims being presented with a prayer card and sharing in the diocesan prayer for the papal visit.

There are two further meeting next week in Stroud and Taunton. I'll be in touch next week to let you know how these meetings go. 

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 last Thursday (8 July).  Earlier today we had the latest update from  Monsignor Andrew Summersgill the Papal Visit Coordinator.  

Dave Wheat