Schedule in Place for Toronto World Youth Day in 2002

VATICAN, Jun. 15, 01 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has released the program for the celebration of World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto.

This weekend, June 16 and 17, the organizers of the event will be meeting in Rome, chaired by Cardinal James Francis Stafford, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic of Toronto will also take part, along with 60 delegates from the world's episcopal conferences and lay movements. The organizers will appraise the experiences of World Youth Day 2000 in Rome as they make final preparations for the next observance.

The 2002 celebration will be from July 23 to 28. Father Francis Kohn, who handles youth activities for the Pontifical Council for the Laity, reveals that the first three days will be devoted to catechetical talks in the morning, with a "youth festival" in the afternoon that will include concerts, plays, and conferences, and other presentations. On Wednesday, Cardinal Ambrozic will lead the young participants in the Stations of the Cross, and that day will be devoted especially to the sacrament of Penance.

On Saturday the participants will head for Downsview Park, a former military base outside Toronto, for an evening with Pope John Paul II. And the next day, the Holy Father will preside at Sunday Mass as the festival

CWN
15. juni 2001