Walking to World Youth Day
This summer a group of 120 youth will lace up their hiking boots on July 23rd to get to Madrid by August 18th. The walk has three purposes, “The first is the personal growth of these young people, secondly to give witness to Christ in our world, and the third is social, we´re also raising money for a concrete project to help build a school in Burkina Faso,” said Fr. Lorda (Ferran Lorda was 15 years old when he attended his first World Youth Day in Compostela, Spain. He will be attending his 9th World Youth Day this August in Madrid. A lot has changed for Lorda since he first attended WYD in Compostela, Spain in 1989. Today he is Fr. Ferran Lorda, a diocesan priest at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus parish in Barcelona, Spain and he works with a thriving youth group that will be walking about 600 kilometers from Barcelona to Madrid to attend WYD day in August. When asked how such an idea comes into being, he is quick to say, “It starts with a joke!” )
In Saragossa the group will be joined by their parents and together the group will spend the day celebrating family.
“We want to acknowledge that World Youth Day touches the entire family. Parents sacrifice a good chunk of time with their children to let them go off to World Youth Day, the younger siblings see their older sibling preparing and then going off to the event. We want to celebrate the family for the sacrifices they make,” said Fr. Lorda.
Parents and children will be reunited again in Barajas, just outside of Madrid and they will make the final leg of the pilgrimage together.