Deacon Pedro Guevara-Mann, producer and radio host for S+L, is part of a team of 12 that will descend upon Brazil to begin coverage of the events during the week leading up to and including World Youth Day week, July 23 to 28, in Rio de Janeiro.

“This is the Olympics,” he said. “My hope is that we’re able to not just cover the event as outsiders the way you might watch the Olympics, but you can also experience it. So if you’re staying home, you can watch a catechesis and actually be nourished the same way that a pilgrim that is sitting in Rio in the theatre.”

Catechesis sessions, the youth festival and three national gatherings — Canada, the United States and Australia — are part of the events S+L will broadcast in addition to the five main events. The opening Mass on July 23, papal welcome ceremony on July 25, the Way of the Cross on July 26, the vigil on July 27 and the Sunday morning closing Mass July 28 will be broadcast live online and on television. The archbishop of Rio, Orani João Tempesta, will celebrate the opening Mass at Copacabana Beach and Pope Francis will be there July 25-28.

“If the event starts at six, we will go live half-an-hour early and do a whole recap of the day and lead up to the event,” said Guevara-Mann.

As for the mornings of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, pilgrims are divided into language groups and attend a catechesis session by a bishop on each of those days. The catechesis coverage is unique to S+L.

“If someone else is carrying the catechesis sessions, it’s because they’re getting it from us,” he said.

S+L has covered World Youth Day three times: Cologne, Germany (2005); Sydney, Australia (2008); Madrid, Spain (2011). This time, the on-air personalities for the on-site WYD coverage are Guevara-Mann, Alicia Ambrosio, Cheridan Sanders, Sebastian Gomes and Charles Le Bourgeois (French programming).

The WYD cross arrived in Brazil on May 19, more than two months ahead of WYD week.

For S+L updates on WYD, visit www.saltandlighttv.org and www. wydcentral.org.