World Youth Day 2011 is coming up soon! In August, an enormous group of people is going to travel to the beautiful city of Madrid.  Among the pilgrims we will see young people, priests, religious, pastoral ministers and, of course, Pope Benedict XVI. [singlepic id=51 w=320 h=240 float=right] Though I will not be going to ...read more

Does your schedule this August have you in class? Or working and unable to get time off to go anywhere? Many would-be World Youth Day pilgrims have this problem. [singlepic id=43 w=320 float=right]The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has tried to solve this problem with their website virtualworldyouthday.org. In the approximately 34 days left ...read more

As we close in on the one month mark here in Madrid things are getting busier, crazier, and more intense. [singlepic id=42 w=220 float=right]The only thing that will keep us in working order (aside from proper sleep and nutrition) is prayer. The team at Holy Cross Family Ministries foresaw this event and back in May ...read more

Earlier this week a press conference was held at the John Paul II Hall of the Vatican Press Office, to present the status of preparations at less than 50 days before the start of the upcoming World Youth Day in Madrid. [singlepic id=35 w=240 float=right]Following the disclosure of the final agenda of Benedict XVI last ...read more

Are you interested in World Youth Day? I don’t mean  Madrid11 – I mean ALL World Youth Days: before Madrid and beyond. [singlepic id=30 w=320 float=right]If so, you can now benefit from a new resource: www.wydcentral.org. This new website features a repository of information on World Youth Days and will be an information hub for ...read more

Did you know? [singlepic id=12 w=320 float=right]We’ve been asked to pray the Rosary every Saturday for World Youth Day. But this week we’ve been asked a special request. The campaign is now about half way through and WYD is less than 55 days away! This is an excellent moment to remind people, to make sure that people don’t forget, ...read more

Are you nostalgic about previous World Youth Days?[singlepic id=2 w=240 float=right] Did you meet your wife in Denver 1993? Did you come back to the Church in Compostela in 89? Or did you begin to consider a vocation to the Religious Life in Rome in 2000? Was Sydney 2008 a game changer for you? No matter, ...read more

Nobody in Spain is up at 8:30am on a Saturday morning. Nobody. Except this Saturday. A handful of volunteers from World Youth Day were up and moving at 8:30am. The lure was a very rare visit to La Aguilera and a unique religious community for women based there called Iesu Communio. They don’t like to appear ...read more

Working at World Youth Day has been an eye-opening experience both in terms of experiencing a new culture, but also being exposed to the richness of the universality of our Church through the different movements that are represented in the WYD organization. Some are new realities, some are just new to me like the Schoenstatt ...read more

Just a 30 minute train ride from Madrid, in the region of Castilla – La Mancha, lies Toledo. Today it’ a small town with medieval roots and a whole host of inhabitants who commute to work in Madrid every day on the high speed AVE train. In it’s bricks however, one glimpses the days when ...read more