austraLasia 1230
WYD - from a wide-angle lens
ROME: 25th August 2005 -- There has been saturation
coverage of WYD 2005 in the some of the world's press from many
perspectives, but for the EAO region possibly not an overall picture,
one that goes a little wider than merely Salesian participation.
In fact, this writer, who was simply taking the fortnight in the year
that he could find for a break, decided to do so in Germany, part of
which time enabled a skirting around the edges or along the various
pilgrimage routes to and from Cologne, or of getting involved in the
thick of it all as the whim suggested, without actually having to
organize anything. Prior to the event we had done our best to
provide the opportunity to link. Whether people did so or not one
cannot be sure. Certainly there were a thousand or more from all
over, gathered at the Don Bosco Worldwide event in the northern suburb
of Mulheim one day and that was the chance for people to link up.
There were wonderful moments, especially at any
moment of any day or hour around the Hauptbahnhof-Dom, the central
railway station outside the Cathedral in central Cologne. A
review of random wide-angle shots from that position sees large banners
of Don Bosco waving amongst hundreds (or thousands) of others.
One photograph, again random, shows a Salesian sister dancing with a
group of Brazilian youths in the middle of the Square. These were
definitely random shots and the 'Salesian' element was not discovered
until afterwards. Classic comments too - interestingly, when two
groups from different nations spoke to one another it was invariably in
English that they spoke. Overheard: one Czech asking a German:
"What country do you come from?" Answer: "We don't come
from any country - we're from a parish in Germany"!
Of the 400,000 young pilgrims, probably around
10,000 came from countries in 'our' region. And, by the way, when
the newspapers report, as most did, that there were one million young
people in Marienfeld on the Sunday morning that's not quite true.
Perhaps three quarters of that number were 'young' but there were a lot
of middle-aged and older ones there too. At least several hundred
thousand plus His Holiness! But for sure there were a lot of
people, despite the leaden sky. The vigil on Saturday evening
made the most spectacular television one would want to see - partly for
the colour that went with the event, but equally for the colour that
nature provided as the sun set and evening gathered, and the solo
Jewish clarinetist's Ave Maria beats any 'last post' I've ever
heard. You'd go a long way to hear something as haunting as that.
Australia had as many as 2,000 participants.
It is a common thing for Australian Catholic secondary schools to offer
some assistance towards youth who wish to participate, several per
school, at least. A number of Salesian schools supported
individuals along these lines, and there were past pupils too amongst
the ranks, usually attached to a parish group. Many of the
Australians stayed in a south-eastern parish (Porz) which became a
little Aussie colony for the week.
Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese were there in good
numbers - who knows how many. Estimates indicate at least a
thousand. We know that the Salesian group numbered a tenth of
this, but it was evident that Chinese youth from many dioceses in China
were there. Bishop Zen from HK and Bishop Bosco Lin Chi-nan from
Taiwan between them covered the catechesis for Chinese in Cantonese and
Mandarin respectively. For the Chinese, especially those from the
mainland, this catechesis would have been a precious time.
Between the Cambodians, Japanese (and a handful of
Bhutanese) there were at least another 500. Laos and Mongolia - hard to
estimate - maybe 50. Thailand possibly the same number. There
were at least 100 from Indonesia, from various parts of the
nation. Despite every effort to espy the East Timor flag one has
to admit it was hard to find. Maybe there were some there from ET.
Koreans - in huge numbers, it seemed. More
than a thousand for sure. As many as 200 from Vietnam, probably more.
Near enough to 3,000 from the Philippines.
The lasting impression of WYD 2005, however, for one
staying amongst Colonians - is that what you call them, and despite a
very rough familiarity with their language (they speak 'Koelsch' rather
than Hochdeutsch which makes it harder) was the extraordinary effect of
half a million young people on the city and its denizens. It
encouraged absolutely everybody, especially officialdom, to show their
softer side. KBV officials (railway personnel), for example, even
at moments when the system broke down because it was simply carrying
more people than it was ever built for. And one of the very nice
moments was the Sunday afternoon and Monday morning after, when the
train stations ran a verbal announcement in quaint English which said
"we thank you for the best visitors we ever never had! We thank you for
your constant good humour and comprehension which helped us through the
difficult moments" - and boy, were there some of those!
But for all that, 'Colonians' are still going to
work daily, humming 'Jesus, you are my life...'. and the handful
of skinheads who have dared to reappear look even more lost than they
did before. Somehow, except for the skateboard kids outside the
cathedral, it's not quite their city any more! As for the rest of
the young population, well, Australia just might gain a massive
infusion of youthful German blood in 2008.
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