Archbishop Martin: Irish pilgrims faith strengthened at Rio

(Vatican Radio) One of the most enthusiastic delegations at World Youth Day is the one from Ireland.

“It’s a small delegation because of the expense of people coming here,” said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who is leading a group from Dublin.

Archbishop Martin admitted there is one thing which has made this World Youth Day different than any other he has attended.

“It’s rained much more! We had the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, and we fought against the rain, and there’s a certain sense in which the initial reaction is ‘Oh, Dear! It shouldn’t be like this!’ But it’s probably the thing everybody will talk about for years afterwards: ‘Do you remember when we were in Rio?’ and it has a way of building up solidarity,” he said.

Archbishop Martin told Vatican Radio this solidarity is the most important aspect of these international events.

“As always, the experience for our young people is meeting young people from different parts of the world – in an Ireland in which it’s not necessarily cool and popular to be a young Christian and a young Catholic – for our young people to see that there are many others experiencing the same experience and to go away strengthened in their faith,” he said.

Listen to the interview by Sean-Patrick Lovett with Archbishop Martin: