March 5, 2011. Madrid is busy making preparations for the World Youth Day which is being held from August 16 to the 21. The 63 Spanish dioceses will play host to around 300,000 youth from 137 countries in the days leading up to the event. The diocese of Cuenca already has a full roster of young people coming.

Msgr. José María Yanguas
Bishop of Cuenca (Spain)
“This contact with people of such different backgrounds will show the universality of the Church. In Cuenca, we will receive people from France, the Congo, and Eastern Europe. I think that variety is one of the most beautiful parts of World Youth Day, the catholicity of the Church, the vivacity: people who want to live their faith, to confess it and sing it, to celebrate and live with the flaws, weaknesses and sins that is part of human nature.”

Many dioceses will send typical Spanish sculptures from Easter for the Via Crucis at World Youth Day. Cuenca's will represent the passage of “Christ's Descent.”

The bishop of Cuenca also said that one of the protagonists will be John Paul II, the creator of World Youth Days, whose beatification he has called “a breath of fresh air” for the Church.

Msgr. José María Yanguas
Bishop of Cuenca (Spain)
“He gave off, what you might call a magnetism, an energy that made you come into contact with him. Young people could sense it in a very particular way, but I think everybody felt it. He made everyone feel young.”

Millions of young people attended the World Youth Days in order to see John Paul II. Now Bishop José María Yanguas hopes this World Youth Day will be a good opportunity for young people to meet Benedict XVI and committ themselves to the service of others.

CB/AE
FF
-JM
BN