The Big Catholic Party

Hola! It's 1:30am in the morning in Madrid and we are just getting in from our kick-off mass and cultural celebrations. Madrid is a city that never sleeps and so far the youth from around the world are keeping up with it.

After "training" (gripping the backpack of the person in front of you and hanging on for dear life as you are yanked through the jammed streets and sidewalks) our way through massive amounts of people, we made it to the Palacio de Alcala, the home base of the English-speaking activities at World Youth Day, run by the Knights of Columbus. My first impressions of the building was that it was blessedly cool, had seats, and volunteers that spoke my language. After sitting and kneeling on hot asphalt for the past two hours at the opening mass, simply these facts would be enough to make me a happy camper.

However, since I suppose the novelty of air conditioning must wear off at some point (though at this point I think I'll marvel at it for the rest of my life) there were some awesome concerts planned.

Steve Angrisano took the first set, leading us all in a bilingual version of "Yes Lord" (aka 'Si Senior' and 'Oui Mon Dieu'). Cameras swooped by, and the St. Catherine Laubore group dominated the jumbo screens set up in all corners of the stadium.

During intermission, I had a chance to chat a bit with Amy, a recently-graduated law student from Sydney. With a bright blue flag draped around her shoulders, Amy told me this was her second World Youth Day, as she had attended the last one, which was conveniently in Sydney. When I asked her why she made the 10,981.94 mile journey to Madrid, Amy cheerfully assured me that there was no way she would miss the "big Catholic Party." "It's amazing to experience the universal Catholic Church."

Since Scythian, the originally scheduled band, couldn't make it (rumor has it they missed a plane) L'Angelus brought our celebration to the next level. A sizzling sibling band with Cajun roots, L'Angelus got kids who'd been on their feet all day hopping around, dancing "Cotton-Eyed Joe" in giant lines stretching across the stadium, and, of course, bopping around in giant conga lines. They ended their set with a blisteringing cover of "Shout" that had us all joyfully jostling each other while jumping.

L'Angelus left the stage despite the chant of "One more song! One more song!" With sighs of dissapointment, groups reformed and retrieved backpacks. And that's the amazing thing. All of us are tired, hot, and sore, but yet we hate to call it a night. I get a new surge of energy every time I spot a youth smiling, a group from another country singing, or hear thousands of us singing "Lean on Me" together.

So let the party continue!

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--Mary-Kate