Toronto Crowds Increase for Stations of the Cross

TORONTO, Jul 26, 02 (CWNews.com) - Thousands of young people crowded into central Toronto on Friday night, to follow the Stations of the Cross,

A small group of actors played the central parts of the Passion narrative, with about 100 young World Youth Day participants filling out the part of the crowd, for the portrayal of the Crucifixion. The traditional liturgical observance of the Stations of the Cross used texts for meditation written by Pope John Paul II.

The Holy Father himself followed the ceremony by television from his temporary quarters on Strawberry Island, outside the city. The Pope will join the World Youth Day participants on Saturday night for a prayer vigil, then return to Downsview Park for Sunday Mass.

Organizers now expect nearly 750,000 young people for the climactic Sunday liturgy. That number is roughly double the estimates that had been given as late as Thursday. As in every previous celebration of World Youth Day, last-minute arrivals have driven up attendance figures far beyond expectations.

During the Stations of the Cross on Friday night, prayers were offered in a different language at each of the 14 stations. Father Robert Gendreau, the Montreal priest who organized the event, said that the remembrance of the Crucifixion was a central event for young people, «to rediscover the dimension of the Cross.» He explained that idealistic young believers should «keep searching for the truth, and not let themselves be satisfied with the superficial criteria that society offers.»

While the official Stations of the Cross drew a massive crowd, a simultaneous event was staged by a small group of protestors who sought to draw greater attention to the sexual abuse of young people by Catholic priests. Meeting in a Protestant church in the city's center, a group called «Challenge the Church» staged its own «Stations of the Cross,» making the ceremony revolve around the suffering of abuse victims.

In an interview with the Roman news agency I Media, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said that the World Youth Day celebration has helped young people from North America to regain a broader perspective on their Catholic faith after months of reports on clerical sex abuse. Cardinal George pointed out that World Youth Day places a heavy accent on the universality of the faith, and reminds participants that they belong to a massive community stretching across the world and the centuries.

Catholic World News Feature
26. juli 2002