National Youth Day delegates join the Pilgrims Walk in Cebu City which is part of the NYD activities for April 27. | Tonee Despojo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The more than 10,000 National Youth Day (NYD) pilgrims gathered at the Cebu City Sports Complex on Saturday night, April 27, wil be spending their last night in Cebu in worship and prayer.
According to Fr. Mark Rommel Barneso, Commission on Youth chairman of the Archdiocese of Cebu, that the last leg of the NYD activities will be the grand festival night and youth jam for the evening of Saturday and the closing mass on Sunday, April 28.
For the last evening of the NYD, booths were set up to showcase the different religious orders and organizations that aim to invite the Catholic youths to the religious life.
A Youth Jam, which will include singing, dancing, and worship, will follow lasting through the late evening.
The pilgrims will be sleeping in the Sports Complex until the morning of Sunday when a closing Mass will end the five-day activity.
Read more: Scenes from day 4 of the NYD 2019 celebration
The Mass will be presided by the Papal Nuncio, or the representative of the Pope in the Philippines, Archbishop Gabriele Giordani Caccia.
Foster families, volunteers, host parishes, organizers, and delegates will join together in the closing mass.
Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said he is satisfied with how the NYD was put together through the collaborative effort of all sectors of the community including the police, local government unit, and the Church members.
He said that Cebu’s community has always been collaborative which made ‘huge’ religious activities succesful in the city and province.
“Even coming from the delegates, they saw the collaboration and they appreciated it,” said Palma.
The prelate hopes that such collaboration will be manifested for the 500th anniversary of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines in 2021.
“In all we do, we continue to lift up our intentions to tbe Lord. /dbs