1000’s of American Catholics head to Lisbon for World Youth Day occasion, Mass with Pope Francis

Aimee Celio of Fairfax, Virginia, wasn’t in search of love when she was a part of a youth group that visited Rome in the summertime of 1997 en path to the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day in Paris.

But whereas on a pilgrimage to historic church websites within the Eternal City, she met Bobby Celio, an structure main at Virginia Tech. The two hit it off, cultivated a long-distance relationship whereas Mr. Celio accomplished his research after which married.

Twenty-six years and 5 kids later, the Celios are returning to Europe for a World Youth Day celebration, departing Saturday for the six-day occasion that runs Tuesday by Aug. 6 in Lisbon, Portugal. 

This time, three of their offspring — 20- and 15-year-old sons and a 17-year-old daughter — and dozens of different youth and younger adults from the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, will undertake the journey.

For the Arlington delegation, it is going to start with two days on the Shrine at Fátima, the place in 1917 three kids reported an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Then it’s on to Lisbon for the occasions of the pilgrimage.

Thinking again, Mrs. Celio, 47, insists she wasn’t praying for a relationship when she encountered her future husband.

“I’d kind of sworn off dating, so God has a sense of humor,” she stated in a Zoom interview along with her partner. At the identical time, she wouldn’t be too apprehensive if her 20-year-old son, an aerospace engineering main at Virginia Tech, met a mate whereas in Portugal.

“Maybe it’s someone that would be great because I really feel like the people you meet there are there for the same purpose that you are, and have strong faith,” she stated. “I think that’s really an incredible and very vital basis for a relationship.”

Her husband, now 46, admitted to some nervousness at their first encounter: “It took me a while to get up the confidence to talk to her a little bit more often,” Bobby Celio stated.
He added that their “similar values” and “a love for Jesus, a love for our faith” drew the couple collectively and was “a firm foundation for the start of the relationship.”

The Lisbon occasion is going down a 12 months later than its anticipated date of 2022, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Despite the delay, a million or extra are anticipated to attend an Aug. 6 Mass the place Pope Francis will preside. The 86-year-old pontiff will arrive in Lisbon on Thursday for a welcome ceremony adopted by public occasions over the following three days.

More than 1,300 teams comprising greater than 28,600 people from throughout America plan to attend the occasion, in response to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, making the U.S. delegation one of many 5 largest on the occasion.

According to Kevin Bohli, youth packages director for the Arlington diocese, the 130 WYD delegates he’ll lead on the pilgrimage is likely one of the largest U.S. teams, though “Boston is just a little bit larger than us,” he stated.

“All the other groups that I know that are going [have] 10 to 15 people per diocese, per school, that sort of thing,” Mr. Bohli stated.

“This is a wonderful occasion for young adults to have a significant encounter with Jesus Christ in the company of the universal Church,” Bishop Robert E. Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rocherster in Minnesota, stated in an announcement. “It is also a moment when the Holy Father and the Church’s leadership get an opportunity to listen to the young people present, teach and form them in the Gospel, and ultimately send them toward their vocation and mission in the world.”

The Rev. João Chagas, the Vatican official answerable for the WYD occasion, advised Vatican Radio this week that “waiting for World Youth Day may [have grown] the desire of young people from all over the world to leave this meeting with Christ, with the Pope, with each other.”

Mr. Celio, who together with his spouse will chaperone a bunch from Nativity Catholic Church in Burke, Virginia, says he hopes their kids and the opposite younger delegates will achieve “an amazing impression of the worldwide church and seeing these people from all over the world coming for this one thing and being united in our faith being united in this event, being united with the Pope. I think it’s a powerful experience, and I hope they can appreciate that experience.”

According to Mr. Bohli, the pilgrimage generally is a time to “perhaps hear a call” to a spiritual vocation or “even just what occupation they feel called to.” The sacrifices of journey “are all little ways for us to grow in holiness and to grow in virtue,” he added.