On the 7th August, Sr Ann-Marie led myself, Erin, Michelle and Gillian, on the first leg of our WYD adventure. Our destination, Schoenstatt, for the week long festival of 3000 Schoenstatt Youth from around the world.

The weather sadly was not ideal. It did rain a fair amount and was quite cold sometimes. The optimistic Scots had not prepared for this and spent many a day hitching rides up the mountain in the rain. We were staying in Marienland, which, for those of you who haven’t been to Schoenstatt, is right on top of the Sister’s mountain, and the festival was in the valley. However the mood of the festival could not be affected by a bit of rain.

The original Shrine was open 24 hours every day and was constantly busy with mass in different languages, and people making their covenant of love. Through the night people were still visiting, some for five minutes, some for over an hour.
There were several outdoor concerts, events and masses, held on the Festival plaza, where the main celebrations both opened and closed the crowds exuberantly waved their countries flags, sang and danced throughout.

During the day there were various activities, talks and craft workshops which you could choose from and, when you needed to take five minutes, there were chill-out tents, with big comfortable sofas where you could get waffles, cake and tea etc during the day and, in the evening, the beer tents where you could dance the night away.

The Festival was a tremendous success, we loved meeting all the different nationalities who were all so proud to be part of Schoenstatt. However, when the day came for it to end, and everyone started leaving to stay with families in the diocese, it felt so quiet. We spent the next few days with the American girls going on day trips and exploring various houses in Schoenstatt. This really was the quiet before the storm.

On the 16th August, an invasion of 800 000 young people descended on the city of Cologne. Everywhere you went, or tried to get to, you were surrounded by singing Italians, French, Spanish, Africans, Australians, Latin American, - the list goes on - who were waving flags, blowing horns and banging drums. It was one enormous carnival. The tram system came to a standstill on the first day, they just couldn’t cope with the size of the crowds. When we were all walking to the opening mass, locals were hanging out their windows waving as we went by.

Again, as in Schoenstatt, there were many events to go to, however because of the sheer amount of people and the heat, (by now the sun had come out), it was almost impossible to get anywhere. The fun of it came from simply being there and chatting to those around you. One event we did try to get to was a ceilidh run by people from the Edinburgh Diocese, but unfortunately they got stuck in traffic and never made it so the ceilidh was called off and we went for an ice cream instead.
Every day there were processions along the Rhine and up towards the Cathedral, culminating in midnight mass. Surrounding the Cathedral, people congregated and sat eating their packed lunches or sang more songs. I even saw the occasional person swinging their flag from the top of a lamp-post.

When the Pope arrived in Cologne, he sailed down the Rhine. The banks of the river were crammed with people, some even getting into the water to get a better view. The sun was blazing, so the umbrellas we bought for the rain came into good use as we sheltered from the sun. Everyone was delighted to catch a glimpse of the Pope and to give him a warm welcome to World Youth Day, in Germany. Of course the main event was to be Marienfeld, where we went for an overnight vigil and Mass with the Pope on the 21st August. By now the number of young people attending had increased to one million. The scale of the event was unimaginable and mass with the Holy Father truly memorable. I think we all gained a lot from this experience. We met some great people from around the world, had a lot of fun but also grew in faith. Now we’re looking forward to Sydney in 2008, to meet up with our pals again.

Tricia McCormack

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