World Youth Day 1984 Explained

World Youth Day 1984
Date:
Type:Youth festival
Theme:Aperite portas Redemptoris
Place:Vatican City
Organisers:Catholic Church
Participants:Pope John Paul II
Blank Label:Next
Blank Data:1985 Rome

World Youth Day 1984 was an international meeting promoted by Pope John Paul II at the extraordinary Holy Year of the Redemption. It was the first large youth gathering promoted by the Catholic Church.[1] From that experience came the idea of the World Youth Days which since then have been held, every two or three years, in different countries of the world.

The meeting with the Pope took place in Rome on Saturday, April 14, 1984 before Palm Sunday. The young people found themselves in the morning in the square in front of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran for mass, then a long procession went to St. Peter's Square in the Vatican where the meeting took place with the Pope who, for the occasion, was accompanied on stage created on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

About 300,000 people attended the meeting, mostly Italians, but with a significant presence of young people coming from abroad.[2] [3] Pope John Paul II concluded the Youth Jubilee during the Angelus of Palm Sunday.[4]

The following week, on Easter Sunday, April 22, 1984, the Pope gave the youth the Cross of the World Youth Day as a symbol of "the love of the Lord Jesus for humanity and as an announcement that only in Christ died and resurrected it is salvation and redemption." On this occasion he renewed the appointment for a meeting with the young people for Palm Sunday next, March 31, 1985, in the year that the UN proclaimed International Year of Youth.[5]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: JMJ 2005 - La peregrinación de la Cruz de los Jóvenes (1984-2014). www.vatican.va. 21 February 2018.
  2. Web site: Sito web ufficiale della XX GMG 2005: Storia delle Giornate Mondiali della Gioventù. https://web.archive.org/web/20071211155616/http://www.wjt2005.de/index.php@id=161&si=4.htm. dead. 11 December 2007. 11 December 2007. 21 February 2018.
  3. There were 400,000 participants according to the newspaper Avvenire (source ANSA, in Pino Vicentini, The Revolution in a Day, in Avvenire, Friday 11 August 2000.)
  4. Web site: Angelus, 15 aprile 1984, Domenica delle Palme - Giovanni Paolo II. w2.vatican.va. 21 February 2018.
  5. Web site: Ai giovani (22 aprile 1984) - Giovanni Paolo II. w2.vatican.va. 21 February 2018.