Westminster Record
August 2015 | 20p
Celebrating Young People Awards
Chaplaincy on the High Seas
Page 16
Page 6
A First for St Mary’s, Twickenham Page 17
Countdown to Krakow
© Monika Rybczynska
Have you ever stood in an airfield or on a beach and seen so many people around that they seem to merge into the horizon? Have you ever been in a celebratory crowd of over a million people? Did you know that over a million people gather every three years in a different part of the world, bringing their
different languages, cultures, cuisines and flags but all united by one simple constant: their faith in Jesus Christ? In a secular world in which there is an assumption that young people are turning their backs on religion, this carnival of young Catholics, these millions of people, is what World Youth Day offers. As we enter the summer
months, our countdown to Krakow and World Youth Day 2016 has begun. As we head towards the Year of Mercy, it is appropriate that World Youth Day will be spent in the city which the great Pope and founder of World Youth Day, St John Paul II, once called his home. St John Paul preached and wrote about mercy throughout his papacy and his
successor, Pope Francis, has echoed this during the first two years of his. Krakow is taking the theme: ‘Blessed are the merciful’. This edition of the Record has been guest edited by our friends at the Youth Ministry. In it they present testimonies from pilgrims at previous World Youth Days, the exciting programme for 2016 and the
history of this great gathering. They invite the youth of the Diocese to join them in Krakow next summer. And if you are a parent or grandparent, aunt or uncle, cousin or friend, we want you to tell a young person about World Youth Day, so that they too can one day say: ‘I was there. I saw people stretching to and beyond the horizon’. More on pages 12 -15