A Catholic Woodstock

Next week, the world’s Catholic youth will celebrate their faith in Cologne, host city of this year’s World Youth Day (WYD) – if not in person, then, one hopes, in spirit and action at home.

WYD was an innovation of Pope John Paul II, who saw the potential for motivating and empowering young Catholics in their faith by staging what amounts to a Catholic youth festival on a regular basis. Some commentators have referred to WYD as a “Catholic Woodstock”, a reference to the epochal rock festival in New York State in 1969. In their impact on the respective cultures these events have aimed at, the comparison is suitable.

Pope Benedict, not a fan of rock music, might say that where the culture of Woodstock – hedonistic, drug-fuelled and frequently paganistic – drove people away from the Gospel values, the WYD culture gives hope to Catholic faith.

Influential Vatican correspondent John R Allen Jr makes the point that World Youth Day “is a jolt to the story that secularised society likes to tell itself, which is that religion is a quiet, private thing with little impact on the broader culture and little appeal for the young.”

Indeed, WYD often bemuses secular society. Past WYDs have seen an old, infirm pope commanding enthusiastic, cheering audiences bigger than any rock act, even giants such as U2, could draw. The papal Mass at WYD 1995 in Manila drew a record five million young people; that in Rome in the Jubilee Year 2000 a million.

Pope John Paul, on whose charismatic presence the popularity of WYD was built, is not with us any longer, but his death on April 2 has not deterred tremendous numbers of young people from making their pilgrimage to Cologne. In the words of Pope Benedict, “following the example of the holy magi [whose reputed relics are kept in Cologne’s cathedral]: Come, let us adore him.”

This will be Pope Benedict’s first foreign visit since becoming pope nearly four months ago. One may not expect this pope, a more inhibited person than his predecessor, to replicate the kind of rapport John Paul had with the youthful multitudes, who on occasion would chant: “JP2, We love you!” We can be sure, however, that during the papal Mass, Pope Benedict will find a way of communicating the essentials of our faith to the crowds and to the world.

It would be in the spirit of WYD if the spotlight was now turned away from the presence of the pope, crucial a participant in the event though he be, and on to the presence of Christ in the world. In this way, WYD need not be an exclusive event only for those privileged to make the pilgrimage to the host city, but one that may inspire simultaneous activities aimed at encountering Christ among parish youth groups, or inspire the establishment of such groups where they do not exist.

In late July, Pope Benedict issued a call to all Catholic youth: “I want to invite all young believers of the whole world, even those who cannot come to take part in this extraordinary ecclesial event, to unite in a shared spiritual pilgrimage to the source of our faith.

“Thanks to the happy intuition of the much-loved Pope John Paul II, the World Youth Day is a privileged encounter with Christ, in the full knowledge that only he can offer to human beings fullness of life, joy and love.”

May his invitation be accepted.