6,000 Join Warm-Up Event for World Youth Day

TORONTO, MAY 30, 2001 (Zenit.org).- In a warm-up to World Youth Day 2002, about 6,000 people, many of them youths, met Sunday at Marylake Shrine, at the invitation of Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic.

During his homily at the concelebrated Mass, the archbishop of Toronto said the Church needs mature youths and lay people, able to contribute "virtually from within, as leaven, to the sanctification of the world, through the exercise of their own office and under the guide of the evangelical spirit."

The theme of the July 2002 World Youth Day will be "You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world."

Cardinal Ambrozic urged the laity to overcome laziness and renounce personal preferences to follow Christ's invitation to the apostles: "Go into the deep."

Sunday's event drew representatives from 260 ecclesial groups. Father Thomas Rosica is organizing World Youth Day set for July 2002. For information and registration, visit http://www.wyd2002.org.

ZE01053003
30. mai 2001