Archdiocese to be represented at ‘spiritual high’
Archbishop, young adults will celebrate World Youth Day in Germany

PILGRIM’S PRAYER – Joshua Reiter, a student from the University of Detroit-Mercy, bows his head in prayer amid a roomful of backpacks and luggage belonging to World Youth Day pilgrims. Reiter was part of a contingent of WYD participants from Marquette University. During a Mass for the travelers at the O’Hare International Airport chapel in Chicago, which was filled, Reiter sat in an adjacent room. Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, who celebrated the Mass, will leave for Cologne, German, Aug. 14 in order to participate in the festivities.

By Brian T. Olszewski
Catholic Herald Staff

One of the attendees, Fr. Gene Kinney, pastor of Sacred Heart, Horicon, is a WYD veteran.

“I’m like the World Youth Day priest,” he said, noting that he had participated in WYD celebrations in Denver, Paris, Rome, and Toronto.

It was at the 2002 celebration that plans for this year’s trek originated.

“When I was at the papal Mass in Toronto — the only time we got rained on — we were sitting in wet chasubles,” he recalled. “The priest next to me mentioned he lived near Cologne.”

The drenched American didn’t miss a beat.

“’Why don’t we get together in Cologne?’” he recalled saying to the priest. The German agreed, and nearly three years of planning via e-mail commenced.

Sarah Shaffer, a student at Marquette University, bows her head in prayer during the Mass at the O’Hare Chapel.

When Fr. Kinney and the seven youth and five adults from his parish arrive in Germany, they will stay with host families in the Diocese of Speyer. When they go to Cologne the following week, they will stay in the community room of a nursing home until they hike to the Marienfeld area where the Mass will be celebrated.

Even though he’s not looking forward to “sleeping all night in a sleeping bag” at the Mass site, Fr. Kinney is looking forward to the WYD events.

“It’s a real spiritual high,” he said of the experience.

The priest of 21 years noted that WYD will have an impact upon youth and young adults who attend.

“For many, it’s a first-time experience of church as universal,” he said. “It’s a real eye-opener.”

Fr. Don Hying, pastor at Our Lady of Good Hope, Milwaukee, was at WYD celebrations in Denver and Toronto. Twenty-two people from his parish will join with 13 from St. Bruno, Dousman, for the Cologne event. “You find it tremendously inspiring,” he said. “You realize the length and breadth of the church.”

Fr. Hying, who is leaving his pastorate to become formation director at Saint Francis Seminary, termed WYD “a kind of retreat experience.”

“It is an inspiration to live your faith with conviction,” he said.

As they plan their WYD pilgrimage, youth at St. Vincent Pallotti Parish, Milwaukee are benefiting from their parish’s connection with the Pallottine order of priests who are headquartered in Germany.

“Hospitality is part of the charism of the Pallottines,” according to Maureen Kavanaugh, youth minister at the parish, who noted that the Pallottines in Germany have taken it upon themselves to host youth from parishes like St. Vincent Pallotti that are staffed by priests of their order.

The first week in Germany the pilgrims, who will be joined by youth from St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence and from Holy Rosary, Kenosha, will stay in the town of Olpe. The following week they will go to Rhinebach where they will sleep in classrooms.

Erin Nault, a member of the parish council and a senior at Pius XI High School, has never traveled internationally. She noted that most of the people in her parish’s group are students at Pius who are “very excited” about getting to see the pope.

Lisa Seipel, youth minister at St. Bruno, Dousman, had her first WYD experience in Toronto.

“The biggest draw to go back is the camaraderie you get being with 800,000 people who believe as you do,” she said.

Seipel said a WYD celebration has the potential to “light a fire in people.”

“Young people see other young people professing their faith,” she said. “There is a certain solidarity. They feel the church is alive; young people don’t always see this.”

The Apostleship of Prayer, which is based in Milwaukee, and the campus ministry office of Marquette University are emphasizing the pilgrimage element of WYD.

“We are promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart (of Jesus),” said Jesuit Fr. James Kubicki, national director of the Apostleship of Prayer. The trip has been titled “Pilgrimage with the Sacred Heart of Jesus to Cologne, Germany.”

The group received direction from a study guide written by Jesuit Fr. William Prospero, assistant director of campus ministry at Marquette, titled “Guide to a Pilgrim’s Heart.” The 96-page booklet provided background about the Sacred Heart and, since Ash Wednesday, reflections on the Sunday readings.

“We’re focusing on this as a spiritual pilgrimage,” Fr. Kubicki said.

That pilgrimage will take them to Paris and the Basilica of du Sacre Coeur, Colombiere, Tieze and Lorele, to a park that overlooks the Rhine River. There, 3,000 young people who are in some way connected with the Jesuits will meet. The group from Marquette is responsible for the adoration tent and for leading one of the holy hours. Following the meeting, the pilgrims will travel by barge up the Rhine River to Cologne.

Archbishop Dolan will celebrate Mass for the WYD participants from southeastern Wisconsin in the chapel at O’Hare International Airport Aug. 9. He will depart for Germany on Aug. 14. +