WYD travelers prepared for an encounter, not a junket

U.S. youth leaders emphasize the spiritual aspects of a World Youth Day pilgrimage

By Matthew McDonald National Catholic Register

When Pope St. John Paul II first invited young people to come to Rome in 1984, he was surprised how many showed up. Organizers planned for 60,000; 250,000 came.

They have been coming ever since, through three papacies and 13 countries.

This month, they came again— this time to Portugal Aug. 1-6— and many were from the United States.

Sacred Heart, a predominantly Mexican parish in Austin, Texas, raised $141,120 to send 39 people (19 teens and 20 young adults) to World Youth Day, said Ana González, 27, one of three organizers of the trip. Accompanying the group of young people were a married couple, a priest of the parish, and three sisters of the Discípulas de Jesús, a religious congregation.

Fundraising started with a bake sale of 50 cheesecakes in November 2022. Additional food fundraisers, including a blowout quesadilla sale on Ash Wednesday last February, were supplemented by garage sales, car washes, a raffle, an all-day event featuring live music and games, and a well-attended benefit concert by Mexican immigrant Ángela Sandoval, who performs as GéLa. Organizers also accepted individual cash donations, including one of $5,000.

Members of the group received financial aid according to a point system based on how many fundraising events they assisted at and how long they stayed at them. Most went free of charge, and the rest paid less than $1,000, Ms. González said.

She sees a message in the way the travelers—and particularly the teenagers—paid for the trip, which would otherwise cost $3,750 per person.

“We hope they understand by now that they have to work for what they want, and also to be thankful and grateful for what their parents do for them,” Ms. González said.

Another point of emphasis is that the trip is a pilgrimage, not a vacation. Members of the group met monthly and then weekly for a Holy Hour, meditation, and spiritual discussion. The gatherings included practical details such as clothing, money, and passports, but also, as Ms. González put it, “How is your spiritual suitcase looking?”

“We were having this process just so when we got over there we experienced God’s love and hear our calling, if that’s what

Pope continued from page A2 rooting the wheat with it.

“The good and the bad are intertwined to the point of appearing inseparable,” Pope Francis said. But, “Christians, enlivened by hope in God, are not pessimists, but neither are they naive people who live in a fairy-tale world, who pretend not to see evil and say ‘all is well.’”

“No, Christians are realists: they know there are wheat and weeds in the world,” he added.

The pope noted the common temptation to create a “pure” society and Church that risks making people “impatient, intransigent, even violent toward those who have fallen into error.”

“In that way, together with the weeds we pull up the good wheat and block people from moving forward, from growing and changing,” he said. Instead, by “beating the temptation to divide the wheat from the weeds, we are called to understand the best ways and moments to act.”

The elderly, who have “already it’s meant to be,” Ms. González said.

Why go so far away?

“You don’t have to go abroad to have an encounter with God or to become more spiritual. But I think when you see that there are people from other countries that speak a completely different language from a completely different culture to celebrate their faith, to worship the same God—even if you can’t communicate with them directly, I think that’s amazing,” Ms. González said

Why world? Why youth?

World Youth Day has roots in earlier events, but as an international mass gathering, typically attended by the pope, it formally began in 1984 in Rome. Since then, the pope-led gatherings have been held at uneven intervals, and on every continent except Africa.

This year’s event in Lisbon is the 17th World Youth Day. It was delayed a year because of concerns about coronavirus.

The 2023 theme is the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, which is described in Luke 1:39-56. After learning from an angel that she is to be the mother of Jesus, Mary goes “in haste” to see her elderly cousin Elizabeth, who is already about six months pregnant with John the Baptist, to help her—a theme Pope Francis emphasized in his message in August 2022 anticipating this year’s World Youth Day.

“In these troubling times, when our human family, already tested by the trauma of the pandemic, is racked by the tragedy of war, Mary shows to all of us, and especially to you, young people like herself, the path of proximity and encounter,” Pope Francis wrote.

Pope Francis attended all five days of this year’s World Youth come a long way in life,” he said, are examples of embracing life’s beauty as well as its challenges.

“Old age is a blessed time also for this reason: it is the season to be reconciled, to look with tenderness at the light that has advanced despite the shadows, in the faithful hope that the good wheat sowed by God will prevail over the weeds with which the devil has wished to infest our hearts,” said the pope.

He also recalled the parable of the tiny mustard seed that grows into a large bush where birds make nests among its branches.

“At the beginning we are a small seed, then we are nourished by hopes, we fulfill projects and dreams, the most beautiful of which is becoming like that tree, which doesn’t live for itself but makes shade for who wants it and offers space for who wants to build a nest," said Pope Francis.

He said that grandparents and grandchildren “grow together” like the tree and the birds that settle in its branches, where they

Day gathering.

Eucharistic miracle on the itinerary

The Archdiocese of Atlanta sent several groups, including one of about 40 people from Our Lady of the Americas, a largely Hispanic parish in Lilburn, Ga. Allen Austin, director of campus and young adult ministries for the archdiocese, is leading a group of 10 young adults.

Members of the group met twice by Zoom and attended a send-off Mass celebrated by Bishop Joel Konzen, a Marianist and an auxiliary bishop of the diocese, on July 24.

They planned to arrive in Portugal early, with time to see Fatima, the world-famous site of apparitions of Mary to three children in 1917, and Santarém, a lesser-known city where a eucharistic miracle was reported in the 13th century. (A woman who had consulted a sorceress to try to get her husband to be faithful to her took a consecrated host out of church to bring to her, only to see it bleed.)

Mr. Austin said World Youth Day in Denver in 1993 had a profound effect on the spiritual life of his wife, who attended it, and that he’s hoping for something similar for the young adults who were in Portugal — “At the end of the day, just to have an encounter with Christ, a renewed sense of their journey in discipleship,” he said.

Many paths, one destination

Regnum Christi, a federation within the Church that includes lay members and the Legionaries of Christ, sent 165 people from 10 places in the United States—San Jose, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Nebraska, Idaho, Florida, and Louisiana.

Of those, about 60 are high school students, 80 are young adults, and the rest are parents,

“learn the warmth of home and experience the tenderness of an embrace.”

Urging the elderly and young people to engage with one another, the pope turned to the parable of the yeast in which a whole batch of bread is leavened by a small measure of yeast. He encouraged the young and elderly to “mix with one another” and to “come out from yourself to join with others.”

Such intergenerational interaction, he said, “defeats individualism and selfishness and helps us generate a more humane and fraternal world.”

After Mass, five elderly people in St. Peter’s Basilica symbolically handed over a pilgrim’s cross to five young people traveling to World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, which was held during the week of Aug. 1-6.

The gesture represents the elderly’s commitment to “pray for the departing youth and accompany them with their blessing,” the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and chaperones, priests, and religious (including eight priests and one brother from the Legionaries and six consecrated women of Regnum Christi).

The trips are on four tracks with unique itineraries, all ending up in a public park in Lisbon on Aug. 1, the day before World Youth Day began, for a gathering of about 4,000 members of Regnum Christi worldwide.

Why go all the way to Portugal?

Regnum Christi member Kathleen Almon, 38, who is organizing the trips, told the Register it is about the encounter, not the place.

“I don’t think it’s the location that matters, it’s more the gathering of young people with the Holy Father and seeing the Church as alive, and a giant community of faith,” Ms. Almon said.

Go with the fluid

In northern New Jersey, the dioceses of Metuchen and Paterson coordinated efforts to send young people to Portugal for World Youth Day.

The Diocese of Metuchen’s contingent is 43. It included 14 teens, five college students, 18 young adults, four parentchaperones, and two diocesan priests. One of those young adults was the leader, Megan Callahan, 28, director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the diocese.

Ms. Callahan formerly ran mission trips for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), and she used an image from those days for the World Youth Day trip.

At one gathering, she held up a paperback book and asked the audience it if was flexible. Yes, they said. Could it also fit into a jar? Yes, with a little bending. But water—which is a fluid— can not only fit into a jar but also fill it up.

“That’s the kind of mindset, the ‘heartset’ that we hope all of our pilgrims enter into this trip with. It’s fluid,” Ms. Callahan said. “…When we’re on pilgrimage we have to be totally present in whatever space the Lord is moving in at that particular time.”

That means being willing to accept unexpected occurrences, such as the bus breaking down. The trip’s travel agent describes each facet of the itinerary as “subject to change.”

“How do we live ‘subject to change’ well, with joyful hearts and joyful attitudes?” Ms. Callahan said. “Because God meets

Life said in a statement.

Shortly after, Pope Francis appeared at the window of the papal studio overlooking St. Peter’s Square with a young person who was going to attend World Youth Day and his grandmother on either side of him. The pope noted the significance of a day dedicated to celebrating the elderly right before the beginning of World Youth Day.

“May the closeness of these two days be an invitation to promote a new alliance between generations of which there is so much need; so that the future may be constructed together, in the sharing of experiences and reciprocal care between young people and the elderly,” he said after praying the Angelus.

Noting the strong heat waves in many countries and recent flooding in South Korea, Pope Francis called on governments to act concretely to reduce polluting emissions, and he asked the estimated 20,000 people in St. Peter’s Square not to forget the ongoing migration crisis in northern Africa. ■

Monsignor John Patrick Connor

A funeral Mass for Monsignor John Patrick Connor was celebrated on June 19 at St. Henry Church in Nashville, with Diocese of Nashville Bishop J. Mark Spalding serving as the celebrant.

Monsignor Connor died peacefully at his home on June 13. He was 88.

Monsignor Connor was born on June 2, 1935, in Nashville to Eugene Francis and Augusta Josephine (Lomasney) Connor. He attended Holy Name elementary school and was the salutatorian graduate of Father Ryan High School ’ s class of 1953. He then attended St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa, St. Mary ’s Seminary in Baltimore, and Memphis State University.

Monsignor Connor was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 1961, at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville by Bishop William L. Adrian. He served as associate pastor or pastor of multiple parishes in Memphis and Nashville as well as in Greeneville, Dayton, and Columbia. He was a professor at Catholic High School for Boys and a professor and assistant principal at Bishop Byrne High School in Memphis. He served as the principal of Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga and Father Ryan High School in Nashville.

Diocesan leadership positions Monsignor Connor held over the years included chancellor and vice chancellor of the Diocese of Nashville, where he also served on the Presbyteral Council and College of Consultors; episcopal vicar of the Nashville Deanery; bishop’s delegate for education; vicar general and moderator of the curia; vicar of education; administrator for the relocation of Father Ryan High School; and permanent chaplain for Knights of Columbus Council 7447.

He retired from full-time ministry in 2005 but continued to assist his brother priests in parishes for many years. At the Chrism Mass in April 2019, Bishop Spalding announced that Father Pat Connor had been bestowed the title of “Monsignor” by Pope Francis.

Monsignor Connor is survived by his sister, Mary Jane Connor; brothers Frank (Nancy) Connor, Rick (Brenda) Connor, Tom (Judy) Connor, Hank (Terry) Connor; 13 nieces and nephews, Michael (Jill) Connor, Kathy (Gary)

Fottrell, David Connor, Jeannine (Bill) Moore, Joe (Kerry) Connor, Carol (Chris) Dunn, Kevin (Rachel) Connor, Debbie (Tom) Sloan, Suzie (Jonathan) Cole, Tom (Julie) Connor, Kim (Bob) Szemethy, Pat (Christin) Connor, Dan (Sharon) Connor; 31 great-nieces and great-nephews; and three great-great-nephews.

Pallbearers for the funeral Mass were Monsignor Connor ’ s nephews and nephews-inlaw. Burial was in Priests Circle in Calvary Cemetery in Nashville.

Laurence “Larry” V. Gibney Jr.

Laurence “Larry” V. Gibney Jr., 81, died June 30 in Erwin.

Mr. Gibney was born and spent his life in Knoxville, graduating from Knoxville Catholic High School in 1960. He completed undergraduate studies at St Bernard College in Cullman, Ala., and earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of Tennessee.

He served Knox County Juvenile Court for 40 years, retiring as court director in 2011.

Mr. Gibney was an avid reader and historian. He authored The Church on Summit Hill , a history of the Catholic Church in Knoxville and East Tennessee. He spent countless hours compiling the genealogy of the Gibney, McGuire, and Shanks families.

Mr. Gibney was a longtime member of Immaculate Conception Church and also attended St. Albert the Great Church.

He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Margaret (Shanks); sons Jim (Julie Najita) and Joe (Patty); and daughter Elizabeth (Dean Howell); grandchildren Carter, Emma, Will, Tim, and Mary Margaret; brother Tom (Merrily); sister Katherine; and several loved nieces and nephews. Mr. Gibney was preceded in death by his mother, Catherine McGuire Gibney, father, Laurence V. Gibney Sr., and grandparents Thomas and Katherine McGuire and Terrence and Laura Gibney.

Mr. Gibney was interred July 6 in Calvary Cemetery in Knoxville, with Father Jim Haley, CSP, presiding at the graveside service.

Memorial contributions can be made to the Ladies of Charity, 120 W. Baxter Ave., Knoxville, TN 37917.

Norman Angelo Zigrossi of Knoxville passed away peacefully in his sleep at his vacation home in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., on July 5.

He was preceded in death by parents, Lillian and Myron Zigrossi, and brothers Myron Jr., and Robert.

He is survived by his beloved wife of 22 years, Angela, and his three daughters, Joanna, Karin, and Bella; grandchildren, Krista, Jennifer, Jessica, and Luke; sisters-in-law, Glo and Chris Zigrossi; and several nieces and nephews.

Mr. Zigrossi attended Oakfield Alabama Central High School in Oakfield, N.Y. He received his undergraduate degree at Ohio Wesleyan University and his master’s degree from the University of Maryland. He attended Loyola Law School in New Orleans.

Mr. Zigrossi’s first job was as a teacher and coach at a private school in Maryland. While teaching he applied to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, D.C., and began his career as a special agent working the streets in Atlanta, Jacksonville, Fla., and New Orleans.

He moved up the ranks quickly and received numerous commendations throughout his time with the FBI. He was an assistant special agent in charge of the Rapid City, S.D., and Pittsburgh field offices.

He was an inspector in the Washington, D.C., office and special agent in charge of the San Diego and Washington, D.C., field offices. The Washington, D.C., field office was the second-largest FBI office at that time. He lived in 10 cities in 23 years.

Mr. Zigrossi left the FBI to become the first inspector general at TVA. He held several positions while at TVA and retired in 2000 as the chief administrative officer and executive vice president of business services.

Mr. Zigrossi, who attended St. Albert the Great Church and Holy Ghost Church in Knoxville, was a devoted husband and father. A celebration of life service was held July 13 at St. Albert the Great Church followed by an inurnment service.

Memorials may be made to St. Joseph School, 1810 Howard Drive, Knoxville, TN 37918. ■