Mois : août 2023

Some teenagers and young adults jumped at the chance to attend World Youth Day in Portugal for the excitement and experience of being abroad. Others described an interior restlessness that drew them to Lisbon.

« God has just been speaking to each of us in our hearts, » Natalie Lucey, an Arizona resident, said as she walked toward Lisbon’s Eduardo VII Park, where an estimated half-million people gathered Aug. 3 to greet Pope Francis for World Youth Day’s official welcome ceremony.

An American flag draped around her shoulders, Lucey and an international group of 150 people walked together up a cordoned-off avenue leading to the park, where security guards and volunteers guided them to spaces where they could congregate.

For Lucey, 32, it was her second World Youth Day; she attended the festival in 2016 when Poland hosted the event. Lucey told NCR a friend’s invitation was the impetus she needed to attend World Youth Day this year.

« And the graces I’ve received from doing that have been unbelievable, » she said.

The national flags of all the pilgrim groups that greeted Francis spoke to the diversity that World Youth Days attract. Young people from North America, Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand all gathered in the park, exchanging friendly nods and smiles if they were unable to find a common language.

« This is a global event of all the youth. There are so many youth from all over the world, » Rafael Zorita, 17, of Mexico told NCR in Spanish. As a Catholic, Zorita said he wanted to be at World Youth Day, though he added that the gathering is open to everybody. 

« What I like the most is that the pope said that God calls each person by name, » Zorita said. « For example, there are people from Uruguay, China, Japan, [Korea]. It is kind of amazing because God is connecting so many people. »

About 100 feet from Zorita, who wore a black sombrero and a white T-shirt autographed by other pilgrims, a group of students from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh camped out by a tree. They noticed a reporter’s Boston Red Sox hat and said hello.

« Just being with thousands and thousands of other Catholics, it’s an amazing experience. To see all these different cultures but to still all be united in our faith, » said Hannah Valenty, 21, a physics major who said she had not traveled outside of the United States until arriving in Portugal.

« And Pope Francis is awesome, » Valenty added. « I just want to see him too. »

Valenty’s fellow Duquesne students, Emma Polen, Kate Spadavecchia, and Gwendolyn Sobkowiak, nodded in agreement. They complimented the hospitality of their host nation, adding that even grocery store clerks had shown them unexpected kindness. 

« Everyone has just been so kind and patient, and just respectful, even if we don’t speak Portuguese. They’re very open to helping us out, » said Sobkowiak, who is a Quaker but added that she was enjoying the Catholic youth festival.

Also at Eduardo VII Park, 17-year-old Joao Paulo Rodrigues of Lisbon told NCR in his native Portuguese language that he was moved by the encounters with people his age from all over the world.

« It’s an opportunity to speak with others, to exchange experiences, to share stories, and to make friendships, » said Rodrigues, who added that he is inspired to live his life as a Catholic « with intensity. »

« If I were an atheist, I’d be an intense atheist, » he said. « Being Catholic, I’m Catholic at heart. And for this reason, I have to always live with Christ in my day-to-day life. »

Other young Catholics at Eduardo VII Park did not describe having as strong a religious instinct or devotion. 

For young pilgrims like Jason David Silva-Lopez his brother, Mark Alexis, both from Montreal, World Youth Day felt more like the beginning of a journey of discovering what the Catholic faith will mean to them in life.

« I really want to go deeper into my roots, » said Silva-Lopez, who added that the diversity of life he had already experienced at World Youth Day had convinced him of the need to build bridges between cultures.

« You need to accept everyone, whether or not their religion is the same as yours, » he said. « Just embrace them. Just because someone has a different religion, it doesn’t mean they’re as different from you as you think they are. »

Pope Francis on Aug. 2 capped off his first day in Portugal by meeting with 13 clergy abuse survivors, tackling head on an issue that was expected to loom large over his five-day visit here. 

The meeting comes after an independent commission released a report earlier this year chronicling how Catholic clergy members in Portugal had abused more than 4,800 children since 1950. The report sent shock waves through the country and survivors blasted the sluggish response of the Portuguese hierarchy following the report’s release.  

In a brief statement the Vatican said that the private meeting, which was held at the Vatican’s Portuguese embassy, lasted over an hour and was a time of « intense listening. » 

Earlier in the day, during an address to the country’s priests and bishops, the pope alluded to the country’s abuse crisis where he lamented « our poor witness and the scandals that have marred » the church.

The current reckoning, he said, should « call us to a humble and ongoing purification, starting with the anguished cry of the victims, who must always be accepted and listened to. » 

The pope arrived here in Portugal to preside over World Youth Day, a Catholic youth festival that takes place in a different world city every few years. In response to the abuse commission’s findings, the local church had planned to build a monument to abuse victims to be unveiled during the events of World Youth Day. 

Those plans were nixed a few weeks ahead of the pope’s arrival in the country. A survivors’ group has put up instead a billboard in the city center with the statement « 4,800+ Children Abused by the Catholic Church in Portugal. »
 

Ahead of the pope’s speech to the country’s Catholic leaders, Bishop José Ornelas, head of the Portuguese bishops’ conference, affirmed the hierarchy’s « special attention to the protection of the welfare of children and the undertaking to protect them from all kinds of abuse. »

Yet prior to the pope’s arrival, Portuguese religion reporter Filipe d’Avillez had characterized the bishops’ initial response to the commission’s findings as a « disaster » and hurried in an attempt to handle the issue prior to the papal visit.

In a statement following the pope’s Aug. 2 meeting with survivors, Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the website BishopAccountability.org, blasted Francis for allegedly only meeting with victims in his visits abroad when the abuse issue is already in the spotlight. 

« When the Pope visits a country where the bishops are not reckoning with headlines about abuse, he does not meet with victims, » she wrote. « He did not hold such meetings in Hungary, the Congo, Romania, or Panama, even though the church’s victims in each of those countries surely also number in the thousands. »

« The thousands of people who were sexually abused as children in the Portuguese church deserve better, » the statement continued. « They deserve the ‘concrete actions’ that the Pope repeatedly has promised. »

An 84-year-old retired bishop of Albany, who has been accused of sexual abuse and has unsuccessfully sought to be removed from the priesthood, said August 1 he recently married a woman in a civil ceremony.

Emeritus Bishop Howard Hubbard made the surprise announcement during a tumultuous time for the Albany diocese. It filed for bankruptcy this year after a surge of lawsuits from people who say they endured sexual abuse as children, sometimes decades ago.

The current bishop of the upstate New York diocese said it did not consider Hubbard’s marriage to be valid.

Hubbard, who retired in 2014, has acknowledged covering up allegations of abuse by priests, in part to avoid scandal. He has adamantly denied accusations that he abused minors.

Hubbard last fall said he wanted to be laicized, or returned to the lay state, because he could no longer function as a priest due to a U.S. church policy that bars accused priests from ministry. It also would have relieved him of his celibacy obligations.

But his request to the Vatican was rejected in March and he was encouraged to wait patiently while the seven civil lawsuits against him are resolved, Hubbard said in a prepared statement.

« I could be 91 or 92 before these legal matters are concluded, » Hubbard said. « In the meantime, I have fallen in love with a wonderful woman who has helped and cared for me and who believes in me. »

Hubbard said they were married in a civil ceremony in July.

Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger said rules against marriage still apply to Hubbard, even though he cannot represent himself as a priest.

« The Church does not acknowledge his marriage as valid, » Scharfenberger said in a letter to the diocese. « He remains a retired Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church and therefore cannot enter into marriage. »

Scharfenberger said he was still processing the « unexpected news. »

The Albany diocese, like others around the state, is dealing with lawsuits dating to when New York temporarily suspended the statute of limitations to give people who say they were victims of childhood sexual abuse the ability to pursue decades-old allegations.

A representative for Hubbard declined to provide further information. Hubbard asked that reporters and others respect his privacy.

« My life on the public stage has come to an end, » he said.