Feature Series

January 22, 2019

'Go home and do more for God', Panama prelate says to young pilgrims who share same challenges

By Catholic News Service

Pilgrims gather along the Cinta Costera area of Panama City during the opening Mass of World Youth Day Jan. 22, 2019.

PANAMA CITY – If there was a common denominator, aside from the Christian faith, that united most pilgrims heading to the opening Mass for World Youth Day 2019 in Panama, it was that each person, in his or her own way, faced a challenge back home.

January 22, 2019

Canadians urged to share World Youth Day joy

By Jean Ko Din, The Catholic Register

The gathering ended with WYD Canada leaders teaching the group some Canadian cheers to share with other international pilgrims Jan. 22, 2019.

The message to Canadian pilgrims at World Youth Day was clear: Get on social media and share the Good News.

January 22, 2019

World Youth Day 'manifesto' makes pledge to environment

By Catholic News Service

A three-toed sloth is seen in a tree eating leaves in 2018 at El Parque Natural Metropolitano outside Panama City. World Youth Day 2019 is being celebrated Jan. 22-27 in Panama City.

PANAMA CITY – Young people attending World Youth Day called attention to the world's environmental problems, issuing what they called a "manifesto" for the "care of the common home."

January 22, 2019

Pilgrim’s diary: The adventure begins

By Marilyn Calderone, Catholic Register special

Marilyn Calderone, music director at St. Gabriel’s Passionist Parish in Toronto, reflects on her first morning in Panama.

Wow! Waking up in Panama was a real joy!

January 22, 2019

'The Pope's youth': Pilgrims get warm welcome in Panama

By Catholic News Service

Pilgrims from Mexico pose for a group photo during a tour of the Panama Canal near Panama City Jan. 21, the day before the official opening of World Youth Day in Panama.

PANAMA CITY – Jorge Soto wore a wrestling mask typical of Lucha Libre fighters in Mexico and every few steps he took, others would sidle up to have a picture taken with him. The mask was fun to wear, and it was something associated with his native country, which he was proud to represent at 2019 World Youth Day in Panama, he said.

January 21, 2019

Jean Ko Din in Panama: World Youth Day is a vision of heaven

By Jean Ko Din, The Catholic Register

World Youth Day pilgrims hold candles during a prayer vigil in 2016 with Pope Francis at the Field of Mercy in Krakow, Poland.

We are united in the name of the Lord.

January 20, 2019

Jean Ko Din in Panama: Renewing my devotion to Mary at World Youth Day

By Jean Ko Din, The Catholic Register

Yassiel Barranco, 21, Ivan Lopez, 20, and Liz Marie, 17, pray during a vigil for young people at the Church of Christ the Redeemer April 22 outside Panama City. World Youth Day 2019 will be celebrated Jan. 22-27 in Panama City.

As much as I want to travel light for this pilgrimage, I'm letting myself bring one book to World Youth Day – St. Louis de Montfort's True Devotion to Mary.

January 18, 2019

A whole other world outside World Youth Day

By Manuel Rueda, Catholic News Service

PANAMA CITY

Panama City will be packed during World Youth Day, especially along the “Cinta Costera,” where most events will be held.

January 17, 2019

Panama pilgrims packing plenty of anticipation

By Thandiwe Konguavi, Canadian Catholic News

Twyla Lapointe, organizer of World Youth Day at Home, is pictured with fellow pilgrims Paul Lapointe, Jaclyn Bedard, Candice Meidl, Sr. Mary Clare Stack and Anne Ndungu.

EDMONTON – A much smaller group of pilgrims than usual is heading off to World Youth Day from Edmonton this week. But the anticipation is huge.

January 17, 2019

Canadian pilgrims ready to absorb ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience of World Youth Day

By Jean Ko Din, The Catholic Register

José Murillo packs his bag as he gets ready for his first World Youth Day in Panama City.

José Murillo is the only one in his family who hasn’t been back to Panama City since they immigrated to Canada about 12 years ago.

More...

January 17, 2019

Dancing for the Pope in Panama, 17 years after dancing for pope in Toronto

By Jean Ko Din, The Catholic Register

Myriam Guevara Mann’s dance group will perform at the WYD Youth Festival.

Myriam Guevara Mann still remembers looking out to a crowd of 800,000 people before she danced the biggest show of her life.

Mother's prayers take fruit in new auxiliary bishop's life, conversion

By Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News

Bishop-elect Guy Desrochers greets residents at St. Joseph’s Villa in Cornwall, Ont., where he concelebrated Mass of Our Lady Guadalupe with Archbishop Terrence Prendergast last month. He will serve the Ottawa archbishop as Auxiliary Bishop of Alexandria-Cornwall.

OTTAWA – On Guy Desrochers’ 24th birthday, his mother gave him a Bible.

January 9, 2019

Nicaraguans face greater challenges than most heading to World Youth Day

By Catholic News Service

Israel Gonzalez Espinoza, 25, a journalist who writes from Managua, Nicaragua, for Religion Digital, a Spanish-language online news site that focuses on the Catholic Church, said many young Catholic Nicaraguans will make sacrifices to attend the upcoming World Youth Day in Panama Jan. 22-27.

WASHINGTON – Many will make sacrifices to attend the upcoming World Youth Day in Panama in late January, but few compare to the challenges facing young Catholics in nearby Nicaragua as the country deals with political and economic upheaval, some of it involving violent clashes with government forces that have plagued the Central American nation since last year.