Rio de Janeiro: A sense of love is in the air

The World Youth Day cross is officially visiting some parts of South America this month, and will be heading to Rio de Janeiro before the actual World Youth Day event. It is custom that the cross visits different Catholic dioceses, before it goes to the next World Youth Day.

Rio de Janeiro is a place where Christ is truly present. Most of the nation of Brazil is Roman Catholic, and as you can see Rio is a great place for the Catholic Church. A huge statue of Jesus Christ appears over the city, that makes it even more pleasing.

During the next few months, we will be publishing more information on World Youth Day 2013. We've officially opened up www.riowyd2013.com, so enjoy it!

Missionary Week

Don Eduardo Pinheiro of the Episcopal Pastoral Commission for Youth of CNBB said that prior to the WYD in Rio, a Missionary Week would be held. This is something that I look forward to.

When I went to the Days in the Diocese of Toledo, I felt that I was not only a pilgrim, but a missionary as well. Our group interacted with the people of the parish where we were assigned, we shared our culture, visited the elderly, played with children, and took part in the liturgy. We also experienced what other missionaries felt, such as adjusting to food (we Filipinos eat rice 3 times a day while we hardly ate them in Spain) and the language barrier (luckily the Filipino language has plenty of Spanish words).

Our Days in the Diocese, as well as the whole WYD experience, was special for us Filipinos because we were evangelizing the country which brought Christianity to us. Our Parish Priest in Burguillos de Toledo said that we might have different cultures and languages, but we share the same Baptism and love for Christ.

The Missionary Week would do well for both the mission area and the youth. I see the Good Lord planting seeds of missionary vocation in the hearts of many young people taking part in the said activity, as well as a revival of the faith in the mission area.

We ask Mary, the Mother of the New Evangelization, as well as Saints Francis Xavier and Therese of Lisieux, for their intercession for a FRUITFUL missionary week.

- Nino Molina

Unconfirmed dates for World Youth Day will bring confusion

The Vatican recently launched News.va, but the news posted on their website is quite confusing. For example in their English website they have two sets of dates for World Youth Day 2013. One article contains a date July 23-28, while the other contains 6-13. This is quite confusing for the faithful, and also us to experience.

It will be hard for us to publish our website with this confusion. If we do not hear from the Vatican by Friday, it will only set us back quite a while. The website was first created with the dates of July 23-28th, but now we switched it to 6-13. If we switch it again, it will put us behind in our time table.

We contacted the Vatican on the situation, and are now awaiting a response. We hope that we will receive a response soon, as we're all curious for when the event will begin!

Press release on WYD website

AUG 30 -- RIONEWS -- RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL -- We have decided to halt the release of our website, until we have confirmation by the Vatican on what days the actual event will take place. Rest assured though it does take place in July, but some news agencies of the Holy See have claimed two sets of dates. This is quite confusing for us, and the entire community to read about. We've already contacted the Vatican on this situation, and are awaiting a response. The latest date our website will be published is on Friday, September 2, 2011.

World Youth Day 2011: A great show of faith

Catholic youth outside a Church

Pope Benedict XVI recently visited Madrid, Spain where he celebrated World Youth Day with about 2+ million Catholics. From all around the world Catholics answered the Pope's call to join him in Spain for so many great events. Even though the event was a great success, it was very sad to see some protests which were going on against him. Many Catholic youth downed the protests with prayer, and not violence. Many stood up to the protesters showing them how strong the Catholic faith truly is.

Some protesters were screaming at the World Youth Day participants, but they continued to pray for them. A great show of faith among youth it is indeed, as the Church needs people to stand up for what it believes in. If you're a Roman Catholic, you should take upon the example of these fine young Catholics. We must continue to show off our faith to the world, as the world can no longer reject it.

These young Catholics answered the Pope's call to join him in Spain, and he's also calling you for another place too! That is Rio de Janeiro, where the same meeting will take place, like it did in Madrid. Looking forward to see you there; let's show off our faith!

Wow, amazing! - Official World Youth Day organization likes our organization

We would like to make clear we are not the official World Youth Day organization. That's a known fact which everyone should know. However, we look forward to working very closely with the World Youth Day organizers, in order to prepare Catholics for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro.

I find it so amazing that the official World Youth Day organization has liked us, as we continue to provide you with the best in Catholic services. We will also be submitting a lot of support to Catholics during the events of World Youth Day, but to also instruct you before World Youth Day.

Our official website contains so many great things, and much more to come. Of course we must remember that Madrid just ended, and it will take some time before World Youth Day 2013 can get all the facts straight. Heck, it might even be a few months! However, we are always on the ball for the next event.

We'll be providing you some great blogs, maps of Brazil and much more very soon. Are you a disciple of Christ? Then please assist us in sharing our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/worldyouthday2013. Thanks for all that you do!

Question: "Why haven't you added a Chinese WYD Rio de Janeiro page, website or blog?"

Hello,

Many of you have been contacting us and asking us why haven't we added a Chinese website, blog or Facebook fan page. Well, it's not quite simple! We do need Chinese speaking pilgrims to assist in volunteering for the World Youth Day 2013 cause. Without this, we cannot bring you World Youth Day in many forms of languages. If you speak Chinese however, you can contact us at worldyouthday@lovingcatholics.org.

Please also note this organization is accepting all volunteers to assist with World Youth Day 2013 online. Please submit an application to that e-mail address, if you wish to join in! This is not the website which will be online quite soon. This is just simply Blogger, for our bloggers to post their blogs. Thanks!