JPII, Achim Schadt. "I have come to listen to you, to speak with you, to pray with you. I want to repeat before you what I told you since the first day of my pontificate: you are the hope of the Pope, you are the hope of the Church. I have felt your closeness and friendship much in these years that I have served the universal church. Your love and your prayers have supported me in the accomplishment of the task I have received from Christ".
(John Paul II, homily at World Youth Day in Buenos Aires, 1987)

Pope John Paul II finally reached the end of his life having stopped to rest many times with the youth of this world. On his sickbed there were witnesses of how he lifted his hand in blessing. There is no doubt that he would have given everything to meet with the youth in World Youth Day. We are not only "his youth", he is also "our pope".

Vision of a new civilization of love and of justice

He is "our Pope" not only for the youth who have met him, but he is "our Pope because he looked for a close relationship with the youth and he supported them. He said in Galaway in 1979: "Tell everyone that the strength of the Pope is the youth; that he shares their enthusiasm and hope in the future with them.".

We can read what he left us in two parts of the homily he gave at the beginning of his pontificate: the vision of a new civilization of love and of justice.

A knot in the throat

Every beginning is joined to an ending; every vision seeks a path, only through changes, through new boldness, through a new surging, can a vision become a reality. More than one youth who works in the information site of World Youth Day, be it in a the office of World Youth Day in Cologne, in the projects office in Schoenstatt, in Germany, or in something international, is going to feel a knot in the throat or feel weak in the stomach when he motivates his people to participate in World Youth Day, but he will go forward.

World Youth Day, legacy of the Holy Father

Pope John Paul II made his last trip on Friday, the 8th of April, and although his departure pains us, just as he found his last resting place in the midst of the Catholic Church , in the Vatican grottoes, beneath St. Peter's Basilica, in that same manner he will reach the hearts of many youth in the World Youth Day.

Monsignor Koch describes the situation very accurately in the the press conference last April 4th: "we are happy for the new Holy Father. God willed that the World Youth Day would be the first for his successor. Our posture is the same as his. We are going to everything possible so that the World Youth Day will be a magnificent entrance for the successor of John Paul II into his pontificate. We, the German youth, during the summer will have the honor of getting close to a part of the legacy of our Holy Father and to follow with the tradition of World Youth Days. We will make a small contribution for the realization of his project. With his protection and his blessing we are going to prepare and to carry out the World Youth Day in his spirit and with the blessing and the support of his successor the XX World Youth Day in Cologne will be different, but it will be an extraordinary World Youth Day.

Translation: Celina M Garza, Harlingen, RX, USA