Youth on Pilgrimage to Pope's World Youth Day

July 22 , 2002. Meriden, Connecticut

Following a Mass offered for their intentions, an enthusiastic group of young people left Connecticut today to join their peers in Lowell, MIchigan and travel together to World Youth Day in Toronto. The highlight of the pilgrimage will be an all-night vigil Saturday night and Mass on Sunday, July 28, with Pope John Paul II. The Holy Father has invited young people from every country to join him in prayer and has repeatedly told them that they are the "hope of the Church."

The theme of this year's World Youth Day is "You are the Salt of the Earth. You are the Light of the World." Mother Rosemae Pender, FSE, Mother General, spoke to the group after Mass and gave them her blessing. In previous years the Franciscan Life Center has sponsored pilgrimages to World Youth Days in Poland, Denver, Paris and Rome.