Northern California to be well represented at World Youth Day 2008
(SAN FRANCISCO) July 3, 2008 - Young adults from the Archdiocese of San Francisco and surrounding Northern California dioceses will gather for Mass July 8 at 6:30 p.m. at San Francisco International Airport Chapel before departing for World Youth Day and a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Sydney, Australia. Joining them will be more than a hundred young adults from Canada who are connecting to the Down Under flight and World Youth Day through SFO.
“World Youth Day is an opportunity for young adults in their 20s and 30s to experience the larger Catholic church as we worship together in faith and fellowship and also to know that our faith is very much expressed be being in relationship with others,” said Mary Jansen, director of Young Adult and Campus Ministry for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. “Meeting the Archdiocese of Ottawa pilgrims will be the first step in meeting other people and building relationships.”
San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius Wang will preside at the liturgy. Archbishop George H. Niederauer will join local pilgrims in Sydney from July 16 through 20, Jansen said.
More than 15,000 pilgrims, most in their late teens and young adult years, will attend World Youth Day from the United States, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. World Youth Day 2008 is the tenth international celebration of its kind since its establishment by Pope John Paul II in 1985, the USCCB said.
The Sydney convocation marks the first occasion of a Mass at the WYD site for U.S. attendees sponsored by the USCCB. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago will preside at the outdoor liturgy. “Concelebrating with him will be more than 50 other U.S. bishops who will use the opportunity to meet with young people from their dioceses,” the USCCB said.
More than 225,000 pilgrims are expected to attend the event including 100,000 from the host country.
The Archdiocese of San Francisco is comprised of San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties with a Catholic population of approximately 450,000 people. More than eight million Catholics live in California in 12 dioceses including Stockton, San Diego, San Bernardino, Orange, Fresno, Santa Rosa, Oakland, San Jose, Monterey, Sacramento and the Archdioceses of San Francisco and Los Angeles.
