World Youth Day 2002
From Freepedia
| XVII World Youth Day 2002 | |
|
"You are the salt of the earth ... you are the light of the world" (Mt 5:13-14) | |
| Location | Toronto, Canada |
| Date | 23–28 July 2002 |
The 17th World Youth Day 2002 (WYD2002) was a Catholic youth festival held from 23 July to 28 July 2002 in Toronto, Canada. World Youth Day is a celebration of faith begun by the late Pope John Paul II held on an international level every two to three years, and WYD2002 was the tenth such event. As always, it is very well attended, with an estimated 400,000-500,000 youths from all over the world participating in the week-long festival. Although WYD is designed for Catholics, it attracts sizable numbers of youths from other faiths and denominations.
The night vigil and closing mass, presided over by Pope John Paul II, was held in Downsview Park in north Toronto. With a crowd of some 800,000 people, the place turned into Canada's tenth largest city overnight.[1]
World Youth Day 2002 consists of two portions - Days of the Diocese held in various dioceses - with the majority in Montreal, Quebec and London, Ontario; as well as the World Youth Days themselves, held in Toronto. The scale is massive: Days of the Diocese involved the participation of 35 of Canada's 72 dioceses while the World Youth Days involved the use of some 129 Catholic churches and 7 halls at Exhibition Place, 10 stages (as well as Downsview Park and 5 other parks in Toronto), 30 seminars, 10 prayer experiences, 300 vocational or service group exhibits, 10 cultural gatherings. [2]
As the event is ultimately an expression of faith, and a critical expression of faith is through service to others, World Youth Day 2002 had the support of some 25,000 volunteers; and some 100,000 pilgrims themselves spent three hours each on one of 750 service projects.
The theme of the event was "You are the salt of the earth ... you are the light of the world" (Mt 5:13-14).
References
- ^ Source needed. This was the figure quoted from the newspapers when I attended in 2002 - but can't find it anywhere on the internet...
- ^ World Youth Day 2002 in numbers
See also
External links
| World Youth Day |
| International level celebrations |
| 1984 | 1985 | 1987 | 1989 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995 | 1997 | 2000 | 2002 | 2005 | 2008 |
