World Youth Day Cross Handover Ceremony

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World Youth Day Cross Handover Ceremony

The WYD Cross and Icon will undertake a 'Journey of the Cross' throughout Australia and Oceania from Palm Sunday 2007 to July 2008, touching the lives of thousands of people as a sign of hope and pilgrimage. While responsibility for the Cross and its movement is with the Cross Team, headed by Fr. Chris Ryan MGL, the Cross Team will be primarily made up of young lay Disciples of Jesus Community volunteers, who would have sufficient training and expertise for such a role. Rosie Drum was appointed the Disciples of Jesus Community’s World Youth Day Ambassador. She reports on the World Youth Day Cross Handover Ceremony.

World Youth Day Cross Handover Ceremony – Rosie Drum

In March this year, I found myself receiving the very gratifying news that I had been appointed the Disciples of Jesus Community’s World Youth Day Ambassador. This role means that I will be helping the Community stay in touch with the national preparations for WYD 2008. As a part of this role, I recently had the privilege of representing Disciples of Jesus in Rome as I, along with sixty other young people from different dioceses and movements around Australia, participated in the Handover of the Pilgrim Cross ceremony on Palm Sunday. In order to go, most branches of the Community sponsored me very generously and I went to Rome overjoyed by their spiritual and financial support.

This was an amazing experience for me – it was my first ever overseas trip and what a place to begin with! On arrival in Rome on the Friday, all of the members of the Australian delegation went to St Peter’s Basilica, which was brilliant, being such a symbol of universal unity. The Saturday morning we attended Mass celebrated by Cardinal Pell and Bishop Fisher, along with a gathering of international youth delegates and bishops and priests from around the world. Bishop Fisher gave an impressive homily about the theme of WYD 2008, which was Jesus' last words to his disciples: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit falls upon you, and you will be my witnesses [in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of all the earth]". He explained that if they were to truly fulfil Jesus’ last words, they must travel from Rome to the ends of the earth to be his witnesses... and that from Rome, the end of the earth is Sydney, Australia! This was followed by a rehearsal of the Handover of the WYD Cross in St Peter’s Square, which meant we gathered, with the German delegates who had hosted WYD 2005, on the very platform where His Holiness would be celebrating the Palm Sunday Mass the following day.

That evening we joined the international youth delegates for dinner. These young people, together with many priests and bishops, had just spent a week discussing international plans for WYD 2008. Delegates from many countries were impressed by the way that the Australian government appears to be working alongside and strongly supporting the Catholic Church in the Sydney WYD venture. Few countries hosting WYD have experienced such unity between Church and State. After dinner was a concert which featured an Australian cultural display in which we shared testimonies about previous experiences of WYD, performed skits, and sang the obligatory “Waltzing Matilda”. We also sang “The Power of Your Love”, which became our anthem for the pilgrimage. This was my first glimpse of “Australia on display”.

Early the following morning we left our hotel to go to St Peter’s, where we participated in the Palm Sunday Mass – and where I received my first glimpse of His Holiness! This was definitely the highlight of my pilgrimage: with palms in our hands, we led in the procession of many priests, bishops, cardinals and the Holy Father himself, in front of a crowd of about 100 000 people. Upon stopping for the blessing of the palms, I found myself standing about twenty metres from Pope Benedict VI! Walking past him towards the main altar, I managed to catch his eye and smile and he smiled back, with a small nod. It was such a personal encounter and one I will never forget.

On reaching the main altar, we took our seats in the area designated for the Australians and then I tried to get my head around the fact that I was sitting in a place of honour, overlooking at least 100 000 young people, just next to the altar where the Pope was celebrating Mass. It was an amazing atmosphere and I can’t wait till five times that number descends upon Sydney for the WYD papal Mass. The Palm Sunday liturgy was very formal and traditional, nearly all of it sung in either Italian or Latin. This all added to the general atmosphere of wonder and awe of being part of something far removed from the ordinary.

At the conclusion of Mass, eight members of our delegation received the Pilgrim Cross and the Icon of Our lady from the German youth, in the presence of the Pope. What struck me at that point was the significance of this moment for the Australian Church – what a responsibility we were being entrusted with in hosting World Youth Day 2008! Could it be possible that the ancient European Church has enough faith in us that they are willing to place us at the very centre of the Catholic world stage? I felt a surge of pride at the sense of equality that I experienced: our struggle to reach out to young people with the message of the gospel is a very catholic thing, for the Church in all parts of the world is experiencing it. Australia is now being considered a means of bringing hope to our world through gathering many young witnesses to “the end of the earth” in 2008.

Immediately following Mass, we made our way to Vatican media centre to be a youthful presence at a press conference that featured the Australian Secretary, Malcolm Turnbull, the NSW premier, Morris Iemma, Cardinal Pell and Bishop Fisher, all of whom had been present at the Palm Sunday Mass. Much of this conference made its way into international and especially Australian media. Afterwards we attended a lunch hosted by the Australian Embassy and then spent the afternoon sightseeing.

In the evening we joined the German delegation for a time of shared prayer, testimonies and music that they had prepared for us. The German experience of WYD and especially of the Pilgrim Cross was very moving – some of the speakers tearfully shared of the great sorrow, and at the same time, hope, that they felt in handing over this Cross. The Cross’s pilgrimage about Germany has been the means of the conversion of many young people and the Germans are fervently praying that our own nation’s youth will experience a similar renewal.

On the Monday after Palm Sunday, we had an intimate little Mass with Cardinal Pell and Bishop Fisher, who also took us out to lunch afterwards as a way of expressing their thanks for our contribution to WYD. At the lunch, Bishop Fisher addressed us and made the point that as Australia is a relatively young nation (especially in Church years) and has as yet few saints, relics, or holy pilgrimage sites, we must make use of the natural beauties of Australia, and be “living saints” for WYD pilgrims to encounter. He urged us to remember that living holy lives is as important (if not more important) as celebrating the holy lives that have gone before us in the saints. The Australian Church is counting on Australians, especially the young people, to make a difference in the lives of the WYD pilgrims. Following this motivational speech, we were let loose to visit Rome’s holy sites and saints’ relics. I prayed before John Paul II’s tomb (a very packed and yet peaceful spot); visited St John Lateran Basilica; and climbed the Holy Stairs imported from Jerusalem (the stairs Jesus climbed to be judged by Pilate). This day was the conclusion of the official duties of the delegates.

From then on, those of us staying on for the rest of Holy Week followed our own personal itineraries. I went to Assisi with Fr Chris Ryan MGL and seven others, which was an amazing experience as Sts Francis and Clare are patron saints of the Missionaries of God’s Love. It was almost unbelievable that I was walking and praying where they walked and prayed. We celebrated Mass at San Damiano, visited the tombs of Francis and Clare in their respective basilicas and venerated their relics. I stayed on alone for two nights and spent the next day praying and wandering at my own leisure, soaking up the peaceful atmosphere. Assisi is an aesthetically beautiful place, but even more breath-taking than the scenery is the sense that the grace, peace and holiness of the saints was up for grabs for anyone who so desired to possess them– it seemed possible to be the “living saint” that Bishop Fisher spoke of.

Coming back to the busyness of Rome on Holy Thursday I revelled in the atmosphere of this great city’s most active time of the year. I journeyed to the Catacombs and to the resting places of many saints, including St Peter, St Catherine of Siena, St Philip Neri, St Ignatius of Loyola, and St Monica. On Good Friday I venerated, in the 3pm Liturgy, the relics of the True Cross that Jesus died on, which was a very beautiful experience. On Holy Saturday, I toured the Vatican Museum, gazing not just at the Sistine Chapel but at many other fabulous pieces of artwork, which seemed all the more fabulous just because there were less people crowded round them. The only drawback to Rome in Holy Week (or maybe it’s Rome in any week!) is the multitudes of pilgrims/tourists, which slow things down and help one to make progress in the virtues of patience and forbearance.

We were blessed enough to obtain tickets for the papal Easter Vigil Mass at St Peter’s, which was another amazing experience. The solemnity of the liturgy, the beauty of the sung Mass, the reverence of the celebrants, and the witnessing of several catechumens being welcomed into the Church by the Holy Father all combined to make a thrilling Easter Vigil. To top it all off, Easter Sunday this year fell on Pope Benedict’s birthday and the Basilica ringing to the sounds of “Happy Birthday” in Italian is something I will never forget!

On Easter Sunday we celebrated Mass in our hotel chapel as a delegation before leaving for the airport in order to fly back home. We arrived back in Australia on Easter Monday evening, a close-knit group, ready to take our experiences back into our lives. The main fruit that I feel the Lord has developed in me is the sense of the significance of the Australian Church, and of movements like the Disciples of Jesus Community, in the bigger picture of the universal Church. We make a difference that is not restricted to our own immediate lives, but like the lives of the saints we all influence each other outside of geographical or time boundaries. I am looking forward to WYD 2008 in Sydney, but even more so to the pilgrimage of the WYD Cross around Australia, which I am convinced has the potential to really change the face of our nation, through a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to represent Disciples of Jesus in Rome. I pray that, as discussed by the members of the Decision Making Forum, Disciples of Jesus will continue to hold WYD in prayer and support the planning and the journey of the WYD Cross around Australia.

In Jesus,

Rosie Drum.