JUNE, known nationally as youth month was chosen as the time to publicly announce the mini World Youth Day (WYD) date. The event will run from 6 to 10 December at the Durban Exhibition Centre and is aimed at uniting young Catholic people from Southern Africa and encouraging them to celebrate their Christianity, community and unity. The intention is for the five day formal gathering to bring together young people between the ages of 18 and 35 years from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.
Young people from all walks of life, representing different cultures, languages and geographical locations will deepen their faith and be encouraged to become more active, thoughtful, engaging and caring global citizens.
About World Youth Day
WYD is organised by the global Catholic Church and is celebrated at the diocesan level each year on Palm Sunday.
The World Youth Day concept was initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985 and took place in Rome.
This year’s Mini World Youth Day, is sandwiched between the July 2016 international event which took place in Krakow, Poland and the next World Youth Day which will take place in 2019 in Panama.
The Panama event will be the 15th such global gathering. The 1995 World Youth Day closing mass in the Philippines set a world record for the largest number of people gathered for a single religious event with five million attendees – a record surpassed when six million attended a mass celebrated by Pope Francis in the Philippines 20 years later in 2015.
“If you have been fortunate enough to attend a World Youth Day conference internationally, you will know what a wonderfully spiritual privilege this is and should encourage others to attend the Mini Youth Day conference in Durban to celebrate our Christianity together as Africans,” said Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier OFM, who heads the local organising committee.
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