Mike Horan | The Michigan Catholic

Local events bring spirit of Madrid to archdiocese

Detroit – While hundreds of young people from the Archdiocese of Detroit actually traveled to Madrid for World Youth Day, some of those who could not go put on their own version of the event, called World Youth Day Home, in a 24-hour celebration of Christ on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 20-21.

“It’s a little piece of what they experience,” Ida Johns, a youth minister said. “We tried to put the Mass services, the adoration, all the things they’re experiencing over there on different days in Madrid, we kind of compacted into one day here.”

The World Youth Day Home in Detroit began at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit at 9 a.m. for registration, a few games and icebreakers, and a special visit from Archbishop Allen Vigneron.

“The most moving part was how Archbishop Vigneron opened up to all of us,” Derek Surmont, 18, a World Youth Day participant said, “and he was open and answered questions and he shared and he explained what we need to do to be a better Christian.”

After the address from the Archbishop and the Urban Youth Choir sang, the group moved outside to have a tree planting.

According to youth minister Mike Chamberland, the theme of this year’s World Youth Day was “planted and rooted in Christ firm in faith.” The tree was planted along with dirt from each of the 20 parishes’ grounds that participated, was blessed and then dedicated to all the youth in Detroit and in Madrid that was a part of World Youth Day.

“I think the best experience was the planting of the tree over at the Cathedral because it’s a piece of all of us,” Johns said. “Having Archbishop Vigneron there instead of in Spain was a real plus, too.”

Following the planting of the tree, all participants were bussed to St. Peters in Mt. Clemens. Once everyone arrived and announcements were made, the group began on a mile long Eucharistic Procession and adoration that included a canopy, priests, alter servers, and candles, to St. Louis Church in Clinton Township.

“Adoration was probably the most powerful thing,” Surmont said. “That walk that we did although it wasn’t very far, the looks that we got, we had people stopping and getting out of their cars asking questions. To me it was pretty incredible what happened.”

After the walk to St. Louis Church, the World Youth Day Home campers went inside the church for prayer, worship and a period of silence.

From St. Louis, the walk continued on to St. Hubert in Harrison Township where the nighttime festival began.

 “Last night was a whole evening festival,” Chamberland said. “We had a session done by Thicker Than Water (a Christian Rock band), they came out and joined us and did awesome. Then we had some breakout sessions available for the young people to attend.”

The night concluded with a midnight mass then everyone rounded up for about four hours of sleep. Due to inclement weather, all 160 campers spent the night inside the church instead of underneath the stars like they had planned.

As everyone began to awaken, tables and chairs were set up along with a breakfast provided by Knights of Columbus.

After breakfast, to wake everyone up, the youth ministers provided three piñatas filled with candy for campers and adults to break open. 

The final part of World Youth Day Home concluded with a walk to Metro Beach’s Activities Center, which was donated to the event for use.

Once at the activities center, the parishes broke into their groups and discussed their memories from the 24-hour experience. A member from each parish then spoke about their favorite memory, from singing to adoration to midnight mass.

“Definitely just singing and worshiping with people my age that share the same faith as me makes me feel stronger in my faith,” Allison Garstecki, 16, of St. Peters Church said of her memories from the event. “I can just go out there and not be afraid to be, like Archbishop said, a sheep among the wolves, and I’m not afraid of who I am as a Catholic.”

After memories were shared, each speaking member received an Aloe plant, considered the “healing plant,” to go along with the theme of World Youth Day, and each participant had their hands blessed.

One last walk back to St. Hubert concluded World Youth Day Home around 10 a.m. on Aug. 21.

Although just a 24-hour event, many of the participants felt they gained a closer relationship with Christ, along with some new friends.

“I met an insane amount of people, a ton of really cool people,” Garstecki said, “and I definitely feel a lot closer to God being in this experience with all these new people and new faces.”

Chamberland explained bringing the youth together could help bring them closer to Christ and this year they accomplished that.

 “They’ve gotten to know one another from different parishes, different parts of the dioceses and they realize they’re not alone in this faith,” he said. “We really tried to put them in solidarity with the pilgrims in Spain and I guess you could say the model there would be flexible, go with the flow, things aren’t always going to work out the way you want and the pilgrims in any journey there’s going to be times where you’re hot, you’re sweaty, you’re uncomfortable, you’re whatever, we really tried to get them ready for that. This years kids were excellent, they were awesome, absolutely awesome.”

The World Youth Day event in Madrid, Spain concluded on Aug. 21.