Organizer Sees Rich Fruits of Youth Gathering

VATICAN. Aug. 23 (FIDES/CWNews.com) - On Monday, August 21-- the day after the conclusion of World Youth Day-- organizers of that event were invited to lunch with Pope John Paul II at his summer residence in Castel Gandalfo.

Bishop Stanislaw Rylko, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, told the Fides news agency that the organizers found the Pope «very happy» with the outcome of World Youth Day. «He thanked each one of us.»

In an interview with Fides, Bishop Rylko stressed the Pope's special affection for young people. «When the Pope tells young people they are his hope, the hope of the Church. he is not just saying it,» he said. «He means it; he is voicing his experience as a bishop.» Bishop Rylko disclosed that during that Monday after the World Youth Day celebrations, the Holy Father had stopped his work on three different occasions, to go to the window and give his blessing to the hundreds of young people who had come to Castel Gandalfo to see him before leaving for home.

Bishop Rylko acknowledged that even after months of planning, organizers had been caught off guard by the size and the enthusiasm of the crowd that gathered for World Youth Day. But, he observed, «when God gives he is always surprising, because of his generosity.»

The bishop said that the special spiritual energy flowing through the crowd was constantly in evidence, «but above all, I would say, at the Circus Maximus, where thousands of young people received the sacrament of Concession.» This, he said, was «the most radical signal» of the religious commitment made by the young Catholics who had come to Rome.

World Youth Day, Bishop Rylko told Fides, «was an immense gift, the significance of which has yet to be understood.» He insisted that the event «did not end on August 20,» since the young participants were sent home charged with new apostolic zeal.

The secret to the Pope's extraordinary success in reaching young people, Bishop Rylko suggested, lies in his willingness to ask for a radical commitment. Unlike some more timid preachers and youth leaders, he noted, «The Pope is not afraid to ask them to be saints, to be faithful to purity before marriage, to accept the call to a life of consecration.»

Catholic World News Service - Vatican Update