Jesuit Youth at WYD Find Experience of Universal Church
(August 25, 2011) Some 3,000 World Youth Day participants in Madrid last week attended
the celebrations with Magis, a Jesuit pastoral program that prepares and accompanies
young people in the WYD experience. The youth began the Magis itinerary on August
5th in Loyola, Spain the birthplace of the founder of the Jesuits, and
concluded with the papal events in Madrid. Mariel Rodriguez, from Seville, recounted
that the most important thing she gleaned from Magis was "very much confidence and
closeness to God." For the coordinator of 52 Indian pilgrims, Jesuit Father Erwin
Lazrado, Magis 2011 "was a great experience for the heart and for the deepening of
the faith of the pilgrims." The priest commented that the principal experience the
Indians were taking back to their country was "feeling united to the one Church; these
days we felt as the one Catholic Church with the Holy Father." Father Lazrado also
pointed out how important this global experience was for the pilgrims who came with
him. "They are young people from rural areas who were chosen to participate; it was
the first time they travelled abroad, that they saw people of other cultures." The
coordinator of Rumania, Jesuit Father Florin Silaghi, came to Magis 2011 with 38 people
who have already asked him if they can organize a similar experience on the occasion
of the Catholic National Meeting that will be held in Rumania next year. Father Silaghi
highlighted that "we were able to choose the cultural and spiritual events we preferred
to see" and we also "enjoyed the city very much."