World Youth Day hopes

Pope Benedict is heading to Madrid later this month for the Church’s World Youth Day (WYD) gathering that is expected to be attended by more than one and a half million young people. Among those planning to attend the event is 21 year old Richard Fransen from New Zealand. He belongs to a Catholic youth mission movement called NET Ministries and has just finished a year-long mission in Ireland trying to re-evangelize young people. He told Susy Hodges about the challenges of this mission and also spoke about the 2 previous WYD events he has attended.

Fransen says when he began this evangelising mission he was surprised about the lack of knowledge about the Church among the young Irish peope: "although they do believe in God, they don't really follow much of the Church and they don't really know much about what the Church teaches..." Asked why he enjoys World youth Day events, Fransen says: "it's lots of singing and dancing, lots of joy, .... it's really cool."

Another 21 year old heading to Madrid for the World Youth Day event is Senan Hill from the archdiocese of Dublin who’s a choir master. It will be his first experience of attending a World Youth Day gathering and he spoke to Emer McCarthy about his expectations:

"I'm looking forward to meeting other young people like myself from all over the world who are there to celebrate the Church and the faith....." When asked what question he would ask the Pope if he got a chance to meet him, Hill says he would ask: "where does he (the Pope) see the Church in 20, 30, 40 years down the road... will it be stronger or will it be weaker?"

Listen to the full report by Susy Hodges: