BRIDGEPORT—It may be taking place a year later than anticipated, but it’s official: the Diocese of Bridgeport will be sending a group of 61 people from 24 parishes in 13 towns across Fairfield County to attend World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal.
Originally created by Pope St. John Paul II as an opportunity for young people “to search for an encounter with God, who entered the history of mankind through the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ,” this year’s World Youth Day will be the 16th such celebration. The first World Youth Day took place in Rome in 1986.
Subsequent World Youth Days have taken place every two to three years, in cities across the world, in 13 different countries across five continents. Italy, Spain and Poland have each hosted two World Youth Days, while Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Panama, the Philippines and the United States—and now Portugal—have hosted one each.
The Diocese of Bridgeport has a history of sending a delegation to World Youth Day, including to more recent celebrations in Panama City and Krakow, Poland. The latter delegation, sent to World Youth Day in 2016, consisted of more than 300 pilgrims—the largest in the diocese’s history.
This year’s delegation is smaller—11 teenagers, 24 young adults, 10 seminarians, five priests, one religious sister and 10 adults—but that doesn’t mean they’re inexperienced. According to Dr. Patrick Donovan, director of the Institute for Catholic Formation and the diocesan pilgrimage director, the delegation’s leaders have nearly 30 years of ministry experience and World Youth Day attendances under their belts, from the 1993 gathering in Denver to the most recent one in Panama City in 2019.
One of the delegation’s leaders is Susan Baldwin, who has many years of youth and young adult ministry to her name. She’s been to World Youth Day celebrations in Panama City and Krakow, and will soon make her third World Youth Day Trip, this time to Lisbon.
One thing that particularly strikes Baldwin each time she attends World Youth Day is seeing the unity among the young people—drawn together by their faith in the universal Church.
“It is amazing to see youth from around the world praying together, singing together (and) sharing their wares that they deliberately bring to trade,” she said. “They share their cultures, take photos together and eat together. They go to catechesis, they visit churches and, yes, they do have fun.”
While Baldwin is a World Youth Day veteran, there is one moment from the 2016 celebration that has stayed with her throughout the years.
“The most profound moment I will never forget is seeing thousands of youth on their knees in Blonia Park, Poland receiving the Eucharist at the celebration of Mass offered by Pope Francis,” she said. “The silence and reverence was palpable, and nothing else mattered in the world while everyone silently approached the presence of our Lord and Savior to receive him and stayed on their knees to pray.”
Father Christopher Ford, the diocese’s director of vocations and seminarians, will be one of the delegation’s leaders for the young adult pilgrims. Like Baldwin, this will be his third World Youth Day, having attended previously in Panama City and Krakow.
Father Ford first experienced World Youth Day in Krakow as a seminarian. One memory that sticks out to him is the day he had the opportunity to visit both the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Divine Mercy Sanctuary, where Christ appeared to St. Faustina Kowalska.
“To put those two experiences together, the power of mercy triumphing over the power of evil, set a tone for the rest of the journey that would not be soon forgotten,” he said.
His second trip to World Youth Day in Panama City occurred on the precipice of his priestly ordination. And seeing people from all over the world really reinforced his desire to be a part of the Church as a Catholic priest.
“As I stepped into the final phases of my preparation for priesthood, I did so with a new energy that came from knowing that all around me and all around the world, people’s hearts are yearning for Jesus—something that I experienced firsthand surrounded by thousands of young adults from all around the world united in prayer and adoration,” Father Ford said.
Father Ford’s third trip to World Youth Day this summer will be his first as a priest. He is thrilled to have the opportunity to “be present and minister not only to the members of our group, but to all of our fellow pilgrims and to be reminded that we are part of such a great gift: the universal Church.”
Many World Youth Day pilgrims bring the prayer intentions of themselves and others while on the trip. And one of the intentions Baldwin is bringing to Lisbon with her is seemingly simple, but nevertheless powerful.
“My prayer on this pilgrimage is that every person will experience that one moment when a question in their heart is answered because in the quiet, they heard the Lord speak to them,” Baldwin said.
(To follow the delegation’s trip to Portugal, be sure to keep an eye on the Diocese of Bridgeport’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages and follow the hashtag #BridgeportWYD2023.)
By Rose Brennan
