August 30. 2011: According to the president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity,
preparations for World Youth Day 2013 are already under way. Though Madrid's celebration
is barely over, Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko has already met with the bishops of Brazil
to get WYD Rio de Janeiro rolling. In an interview with L'Osservatore Romano spoke,
the cardinal said that he had already met the archbishop of the city and a representation
of the national episcopal conference. Meanwhile, the large wooden cross that always
precedes the WYDs is already on its way to Brazil, as a plough that prepares the earth
for the sowing. It will arrive in the archdiocese of São Paulo and from there will
begin a pilgrimage to the 274 dioceses of the country, in the two-year span of preparation
for the event. Cardinal Ryłko said that the objective of every WYD is to build
bridges between the extraordinary event of the celebration and the international meeting
with the Pope and the ordinary and concrete life of young people who live in the present-day
reality. Here is where the quality of youth ministry is measured.