Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese, REPORT
22 Feb 2013
22 Feb 2013
Pilgrims in Rio will celebrate their faith under the welcoming outstretched arms of Christ the Redeemer
A nation-wide eConference is set for next Wednesday for pilgrims, participants, parishes, students and schools to receive the latest info on Rio-WYD13 and to have their questions answered without having to leave their home or their desks.
"The eConference will also feature first-hand testimonies from pilgrims who were at World Youth Day in Madrid and Sydney, and will speak about how each of these events deepened their faith and the impact each of these experiences has had on their lives," says Jake Ryan, Projects and Events Officer for the Archdiocese of Sydney and one of the key instigators and organisers of next week's eConference.
"We have had so many enquiries about Rio-WYD13 that an eConference seemed the ideal way to answer questions and give information and also create an open forum so people across the country can share their thoughts without leaving home," says Jake.
The eConference which will take place via international social networking site, Xt3.com at 7.pm on Wednesday, 27 February, will not only give detailed info on how Australian pilgrims will be housed together at specially-fitted out warehouses on Rio's spectacular waterfront, but will give details of the many different missions open to pilgrims in the week or two before the start of this year's WYD in Brazil," he says.
At previous World Youth Days, pilgrims were encouraged to spend several days or as long as a week in different towns and cities of the host country as part of the Days in the Diocese initiative.
For all questions about WYD13 join
next week's eConference
But this has now been expanded to enable pilgrims to engage with the missions of religious communities and South American parishes- spending time helping out and working alongside the poor, oppressed, the homeless, disabled and with children housed at orphanages in city slums.
"Helping the vulnerable and those on the margins is very much part of the Catholic ethos," says Jake and while he admits the poverty in parts of South America may be confronting, he believes the experience will also be spiritually rewarding and life-changing.
For the past five or six years, Australian students and young people have spent their university holidays in January in countries like Peru where they have worked with members of the Fraternas, the Marian Community of Reconciliation and helped construct or repair village churches, taught English and RE to children at orphanages and brought comfort to the poor.
"More and more young people are becoming involved in mission work and see this as an important part of their faith, and a way of giving back to the community," says Jake.
Just as the 2012 London Olympic Games became known as the world's first Social Media games, WYD13 in Rio de Janeiro is set to become even more of a global social media event.
Converted warehouses along waterfront port will become Aussie Central during WYD2013
Already thousands of young people worldwide are using social media to share their faith and enthusiasm for WYD13 on Twitter, Facebook, Xt3.com, SMS as well as on blogs and on the many specially-created WYD13 websites. Others are using WYD phone apps or logging on to the Pilgrim e-news.
The eConference planned for next week is yet further acknowledgement of the amazing advances in technology that have not only changed the way we communicate but now enable people no matter where they live to participate in forums, panels, and group discussions in real time as if they were in the same room or hall and not thousands of kilometres apart.
To find out more about the eConference and Rio-WYD13 go tohttp://www.sydneycatholic.org/youth2/index.asp?id=1§ionid=0 or to Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/events/424730574282374/?ref=3
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
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