Remembering World Youth Day in Poland

It has been six years since I was blessed with the opportunity to attend my first World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland.  For this pilgrimage, I led a group of young adults from the Diocese of Savannah, Ga.  We arrived on a Sunday and attended Mass at a beautiful church in downtown Krakow.  The people welcomed us with joy and seemed thrilled to have so many visitors to their country.  On that first day, the city was not very crowded and it was hard to imagine what was coming next.
On Monday, we visited the John Paul II Center.  The center was not very crowded that day and we were able to walk the grounds and pray in different areas of the sanctuary.  There were Masses every hour in the chapel so we were able to attend.  It was an amazing experience to participate in Masses in different churches throughout the week that we were in Poland.  As we were heading back to our hostel, we started to see a swelling of pilgrims in the city.  At each street corner, there were throngs of people overwhelming the space.  The numbers continued to grow throughout the week.
The official welcome for pilgrims began on Tuesday with the opening ceremonies in the evening.  At this point, there were hundreds of thousands of people.  There was a lot happening throughout Krakow and every place was crowded.  It was exciting to see so many Catholics passionate about their faith.  Each morning on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday there were catechetical sessions throughout the city at different parishes.  These sessions were in many different languages.  We alternated between sessions in English and Spanish during the three days.  Each session was filled with music, a speaker and Mass.  At the Spanish session, the church was packed.  There were pilgrims sitting on the floor with very little space to walk.  For Communion, the priest would come to an open area of the church and the people would surround him in a circle.  It would take a long time for everyone to receive Communion, but the priest remained poised in the center of the crowd.  The enthusiasm and joy during the session was incredible and will remain with me.
Our hostel was a college dorm on the outskirts of Krakow.  It was a simple room with two beds and no air conditioning.  During the evenings, the window was open to let air in and keep the room cool.  Just outside the dorm were food trucks which you could use vouchers to receive your meals.  The lines at the trucks were very long and became quite a challenge.  In the center of the dorm was a courtyard.  Every night pilgrims would gather in the courtyard for music and singing.  The music would continue all night!  There was so much togetherness and excitement and it seemed that nobody wanted the day to end.  
The excitement grew each day with the anticipation of the arrival of Pope Francis.  The pope would arrive on Thursday and deliver his welcome address to more than 1 million pilgrims.
Part two next month:  Pope Francis arrives at World Youth Day!
— Tex Phelps is the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese of Mobile. He may be emailed at [email protected]
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