More than 5K delegates attend Youth Day

ABIDING FAITH. Several faithful, including Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza, carry the image of the Virgen de Regla during the procession for the Youth Day celebration. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

BEVERLY Cabrera was with 30 youths from the San Nicolas de Tolentino Cathedral parish in Surigao City on board a passenger vessel bound for Cebu City when state weather bureau Pagasa raised a gale warning.

They got stranded in Hilongos, Leyte last Tuesday after sea travel was barred in Cebu and other parts of Central Visayas.

“We prayed that the gale warning would be lifted and the rain would stop. We didn’t feel any fear because of our prayers,” the 23-year-old Cabrera told Cebu Daily News.

The Sto. Niño parish in Hilongos, Leyte provided them with food and shelter for a night.

At 11 a.m. on Wednesday, their boat was finally cleared for travel. They arrived in Cebu at 4 p.m.  on the same day.

Cabrera and her group joined more than 5,000 delegates who gathered at the Hoops Dome in Lapu-Lapu City for last Wednesday’s International Youth Day, one of several events held as part of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC).

Some 3,604 youth pilgrims were from local and national parishes.

Foreign delegates were greeted warmly by youth volunteers, with some even dancing to the beat of drums.

“It’s amazing being here with so many others who have the same faith. People from all around the world are showing the same religion,” said 31-year-old Brian Yau, a delegate from Hong Kong who came with his 24-year-old girlfriend Christy Cheung.

In his homily, Fr. Juris Calza, SDD, urged the youth to speak up in church.

“Now the church minds young people. We (priests) don’t know how to take care of you; tell us how to make you love the Eucharist,” he told the delegates.

Fr. Robert Barron said Catholic youths should “put Christ in the center of their lives” and “make their lives a gift” to others.

“If you find the person God wants you to be, you will set the world on fire,” he said.