The Mass, presided over by Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, is an annual tradition that began in the early 1980s under Bishop Joseph-Aurele Plourde.

Ted Hurly, the co-ordinator of the archdiocese’s youth ministry, said it gave young Catholics from Ottawa’s diverse communities the opportunity to show how far reaching their faith truly is.

“The Homelands Mass provides a wonderful opportunity for faith communities young and old to come together and realize that the Catholic faith reaches across the world,” Hurly said. “It’s really exciting for Catholics to be able to come together and join in faith.”

Barbara Day, 26, represented Ottawa’s Slovak community. She said the Mass was a great way to share her culture with other people.

“I’m proud of my community and want to show other people my culture,” Day said. “The Mass was a very effective way to do that. Everyone was asking where I was from. The Slovakian community was well recognized.”

Day, who has participated in the Homelands Mass twice before,  said she plans to participate next year as well.

“I plan to keep doing this for as long as I can. I enjoy celebrating Catholic religion and showing my culture,” Day said. “I also found the other cultures represented at this mass to be very beautiful.”

Joanna Pachulski, who participated wearing Krakowska, a traditional Polish fabric, said that it gave her the chance to learn about a variety of cultures.

“I like this Mass a lot,” Pachulski said. “It’s nice to see all these different people from different communities and countries.”

To one churchgoer, a 13-year-old who represented the Slovak community and asked only to be referred to as Fred, events like this are an excellent way to combat racism.

“I think this is a great opportunity to eliminate racism,” Fred said. “Racism is present in many societies and many groups. I see a lot of racism at my school, there’s a lot of racist jokes aimed at Jews and black people.”

Fred said that events like this help combat racism by introducing others to what unites rather than what divides humanity and allows people of different backgrounds to come together.

 “The Homelands Mass allows people to come together and realize what people have in common,” Fred said. “By sharing their food and languages, different cultures can come together and make people look beyond (the stereotypes), thus eliminating racism.”

Whatever feelings the youth had about the Mass, its organizers agreed that it accomplished its goal: it allowed people from different cultures to come together and embrace the Catholic faith.

“This Mass was a huge success,” said Ginette Chaumont the archdiocese’s director of communications. “There was a lot of youth participation at the mass as it gave youth the chance to be proud of their culture. It helped show how the Catholic Church truly is universal and reaches across the entire the world.”

(Mair, 19, is a first year journalism student at Carleton University).