Pope Benedict loved 2008 WYD

ROME (OSV News) — In St. Peter’s Basilica this week, tens of thousands of visitors have been able to see him dressed in striking red posthumous vestments — the same as he wore in Sydney at World Youth Day in 2008. On Jan. 5, he will be buried in them.

“Pope Benedict XVI remarked to me on many occasions how much he loved his visit to Sydney to celebrate World Youth Day in 2008,” Archbishop Anthony Fisher, O.P. of Sydney wrote on his Facebook profile. “What a wonderful tribute.”

Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney at the time of World Youth Day in Australia, told OSV News that he had been “delighted and honored” to host Pope Benedict in Sydney.

“We had some beautiful memories there. One of the most lovely photographs is of him, and I happened to be beside him, on the row of the boat coming up Sydney Harbor on a perfect day for the opening Mass,” Cardinal Pell recalled. “It was beautiful.”

World Youth Day, a meeting of youth from around the globe with the pope begun by Pope St. John Paul II, is organized every two to three years in a different corner of the world. When John Paul II died in April 2005, preparations for the summer World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, were already underway, and Pope Benedict was enthusiastic to continue the legacy of his predecessor.

“With that decision, Benedict XVI made the Polish pope’s ‘invention’ as part of the ordinary life of the Catholic Church forever,” Yago de la Cierva, executive director of World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011, told OSV News.

World Youth Day in Madrid was the third and final of the events that Pope Benedict attended before his 2013 resignation.

De la Cierva recalled how Benedict instantly mesmerized the young people who had been waiting for him in the Spanish capital. When he was driving from the airport to the Vatican embassy through the streets of the city, the affection was visible — and loud.

“I could see from the car of the en- the Lord work in us.

This is also interesting for the ecumenical dialogue. Luther’s doctrine of justification was provoked by his difficulty in understanding himself justified and redeemed through the complex structures of the medieval Church. Grace did not arrive in his soul and we have to understand the explosion of ‘sola fide’ in this context: that he discovered finally that he had only to give fiducia, confidence, to the Lord, to give myself into the hands of the Lord—and I am redeemed. I think in a very Catholic way this returned in Thérèse of Lisieux: You don’t have to make great things. I am poor, spiritually and materially; and to give myself into the hands of Jesus is sufficient. This is a real interpretation of what it means to be redeemed; we don’t have to do great things, we have to be confident, and in the freedom of that confidence we can follow Jesus and realize a Christian life. This is not only an important contribution to the ecumenical dialogue but to our common question—how can I be redeemed, how am I justified? [Thérèse’s] “little way” is a very deep rediscovering of the center of Christian life.

The other concept is that from the cloister, far from the world, one can do much for the world. Communion with Christ is presence to Christians all over the world. Everybody can be “efficient” for the universal Church in this day. This is also a new definition of “efficiency” in the Church. We have so many actions, and we have to discover that “efficiency” begins with communion with the Lord.

Church, an “efficient” Church in the external sense. It’s a rediscovery of the roots of all Christian action.

She also had a new idea of heaven, of the relationship between eternity and time. To be present on earth and to do good on earth is my heaven. We have a new relationship between eternity and time: heaven is not absent from earth, but a new and stronger presence. Eternity is present in time, and living for eternity is living in and for the time at hand. By living a Christian life we are more present to earth, we are changing the earth; we can speak about a new eschatology here, which is an important doctrine.

This dialectic of presence and absence is a very great doctrine. The subtlety of Thérèse is also wonderful in dealing with some of the demands for new Marian dogmas. She wrote, “Don’t always speak about the privileges of Mary, speak about her as being as we are.” There are some wonderful texts [along these lines] and these are very helpful corrections against these [hyperMarian] tendencies…

That was Joseph Ratzinger, twentyfive years ago, on the vocation to holiness and its many forms and modalities in the Church; on time and eternity; on handing oneself over in confidence to the Lord; on the irreducible Christocentricity of the Christian life. In remembering that conversation from a quarter-century ago, I cannot help but think that Ratzinger was allowing me a glimpse into his own deep interior life: the life of a man aptly described by Cardinal Joachim Meisner as having “the mind of twelve professors” and the clear piety of a child making his

But what really will go down in history of the Madrid event is the Saturday vigil. Aug. 20, 2011, was the hottest day of the summer in Spain, with a temperature reaching 102 degrees Fahrenheit. At night, the hot day transitioned to a brutal storm, with torrential rain and driving winds. Lightning struck the light towers, and make-shift chapels set up at the Cuatro Vientos airport collapsed.

At the scene, the choir deserted the stage, thinking it was on the verge of collapse. Assistants were covering Pope

The fact that his love for World Youth Day was highlighted by Benedict XVI even upon his death is something very special for World Youth Day organizers.

“I saw this love in person, and it comes as no surprise to me, but I must admit it’s such an incredibly touching moment and legacy to be remembered forever for the organizers of World Youth Day,” de la Cierva said.

Paulina Guzik is international editor for OSV News.

By Marianne Zanko Komek

EAST BRUNSWICK — The faculty and students of St. Bartholomew School raised $3,700 for the Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen’s Diocese of Ozanam Family Shelter for Women and Children, Edison, by participating in a “Change Spree Challenge” coordinated by second-grade teacher Jennifer Balestrieri and principal Theresa Craig.

The students collected loose change while their teachers spurred them on in a friendly competition among the grade levels to see who could raise the most money.

Craig would announce who the current winner was in her daily morning announcements. The teachers encouraged the students to play the contest like a snowball fight and become champions. Students were told that the money would be used to help families.

St. Bart’s began participating in the challenge last year under the guidance of the former principal, Ann Wierzbicki, as part of the celebration of the diocese’s 40th anniversary. The school decided to do something for the needy, which is how they decided on helping the homeless around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Balestrieri had the idea, which became one of the 40 Acts of Kindness for the celebratory year. In 2021, they school raised

$2,700 dollars. This year, a $1,000 surge on the last day of the fundraiser brought it to $3,700.

“I love to help people,” Craig said, “and it’s a way to teach children when they’re very young to do good to others. We started the project on All Saints Day. Everybody can be a saint if you work together and really make an impact.”

Balestrieri asked the staff at the shelter to furnish her with a list of items that were most needed for the 40 families housed there, and items such as toiletries and snacks were at the top of the list. She bought the supplies and this year found that there was extra money, so she also bought hats, scarves and gloves for the adults and children as well as towels, bedsheets, water and diapers.

Last year, Balestrieri also made a cash donation to the challenge. It was a tangible way for the students to see what their efforts were accomplishing when the boxes of deliveries arrived every day and filled Balestrieri’s classroom to overflowing.

“You usually don’t think much of extra change, we just toss it in the bottom of our purses, but we could see how it really made a difference,” Balestrieri said.

“Everybody can do a little bit and together we can do a lot,” Craig said.

Last year, Balestrieri’s own children, Melania, a sixth-grader, and Anthony, a fourth-grader, helped her count the mon- ey. In 2021, an eighth-grader donated $50 from his allowance.

Sister Mary Louise Shulas, director, curriculum, diocesan Office of Schools, attended a celebration of the success the fundraiser. Craig said because that Sister Mary Louise was a principal for a long time, she was very understanding.

On Dec. 9, Craig drove her husband’s pickup truck to the school. Balestrieri, Craig, Rachel Januse, a fourthgrade teacher; Stephanie Bianchino, a first-grade teacher; and Migdalia Block, a second-grade teaching assistant; loaded up the supplies with the help of students and the faculty delivered them to the homeless shelter. Ozanam staff members were grateful.

“Participating in the change spree was a fun and exciting experience that helped us spread the Kingdom of God and inspired us to care for others,” said eighth-grader Jake Caravello, an eighth grader said.

“This change spree challenge really taught my class the joy of giving to others while making the competition a fun challenge for everyone,” eighth-grader Giovanna Schwam said.

The faculty plans to continue to hold the fundraiser in the future.