The official Diocese of Honolulu pilgrim group takes a photo at Darling Harbor, July 15, on their first morning walking around the city.

SYDNEY

The days were long and filled with activity for Hawaii’s World Youth Day 2008 pilgrims. Here are some highlights of their experience in Sydney.

Opening Mass

Music blasting, flags flying, prayers flowing, World Youth Day 2008 officially opened with a packed Sydney waterfront gathering and Mass on July 15. And the Diocese of Honolulu’s pilgrims were there to witness it all.

Earlier in the day, pilgrims from St. Michael Parish, Waialua, and its Sts. Peter and Paul Mission in Waimea took a ferry ride to the Circular Quay near the Sydney Opera House to participate in the reconciliation and adoration led by the Missionaries of Charity.

Then they walked — pilgrims’ feet were a primary mode of transportation throughout the week — down to Barangaroo, a large open area along the water near Darling Harbor, where many major World Youth Day events took place.

The meals were pre-packaged and exchanged for tickets the pilgrims were given. By the end of the week, many would be very tired of stew for dinner.

St. Francis School junior and St. Michael’s pilgrim Nichole Rego said she enjoyed “hearing all the different languages and seeing all the different nationalities.”

Sitting near the Hawaii group was Dativah Murungi, 32, a solo pilgrim from Rwanda because the rest of her group members were unable to get visas. She flew from Kigali through Nairobi, Bangkok and Hong Kong before arriving in Sydney.

“I felt it was so important to meet young people from different walks of life,” she said. “I’ll go back and tell other people about my experience.”

After the Mass, presided over by Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell, the St. Michael’s group stuck around for a concert, a pyrotechnics show and fireworks. Everyone was dancing, including St. Michael’s parochial vicar Sacred Hearts Father Johnathan Hurrell and Holy Trinity pastor Father Gary Secor.

Stations of the Cross

On July 18, the city of Sydney became a backdrop for a dramatic interpretation of the Stations of the Cross. As seven pilgrims from St. Theresa, Kihei’s, Tongan Community sat together off to the left of the altar at Barangaroo while waiting for the reenactors to pass by, they shared Nutter Butters and Chips Ahoy while talking about World Youth Day with other pilgrim groups sitting around them.

Maimoa Hokulani Funeisaloi went to World Youth Day in 2000 in Rome with Pope John Paul II and was glad to experience another one with a new pope. “[WYD] gives youth around the world the chance to get to know the bigger family,” the 22-year-old said. “For me, it was realizing there is something beyond my community. It makes it easier to be Catholic.”

Makalita Falekaono, who with her husband Paeailoma led the St. Theresa group, said it was Benedictine Sister Celeste Cabral who told them about the event. “I’m just happy that we all got to come together,” she said.

Of the Stations of the Cross, she said, “I got emotional watching them. It was like you were there when it first happened.”

St. Theresa’s group was hard to miss walking around Sydney. They wore traditional Tongan dress throughout the week and said they were constantly stopped for photos by fellow pilgrims. Diocese coordinator Patty Kaluau joked that they should start charging per picture to earn a little spending money.

Talking and music

Hawaii pilgrims attended a variety of “youth festival” talks and concerts.

Many in the St. Michael’s group went to Christopher West’s “Theology of the Body” talk on July 17. Group coordinator Karl Sandbo called it a powerful session.

“[West] made me really appreciate the Eucharist and understand it in a new way through the relationship of men and women,” he said. “And at the end of the talk he called up all the consecrated celibates and said, ‘What these people say with their lives is that heaven is real and they are willing to sacrifice everything for it.’”

Music was big. From a Darling Harbor performance by the Celtic rock band Scythian to a “Receive the Power” concert at Barangaroo, July 18, the Hawaii pilgrims danced and sang their hearts out.

St. Michael pilgrim Kelly Godwin said she had just been to Bayfest in Kaneohe on July 4 and that the “Receive the Power” concert, with bands, speakers and skits, was 10 times better. “[The Bayfest bands] just didn’t have what these bands had,” said the 32-year-old group chaperone. “I felt like the spirit was there.”

The bishop’s experience

Bishop Larry Silva had a busy schedule and spent most of the time away from the Hawaii group. But he made sure to check in a few times throughout the week.

One of those times was during the July 18 Stations of the Cross when he left the bishops’ viewing area at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Center to sit with a group of island pilgrims.

Bishop Silva was one of many bishops who gave catechesis talks and presided at Masses around Sydney. “I think the people seemed enthused,” he said of his catechetical sessions. “They had a lot of good questions and people seemed to be grateful.”

The bishop also sat at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ booth at the Vocations Expo on July 16.

All the bishops participated in the opening Mass, papal arrival ceremonies and closing Mass. Bishop Silva said it involved a lot of “hurry up and wait”-ing. For the papal arrival, he and about 12 other bishops literally missed the boat to the Barangaroo site and ended up walking over.

“Everyone was cheering us as we came in because we were all wearing our bishop’s regalia,” he said.

“It was nice to be with the other bishops and meet ones from other countries,” he said.

Cardinal Pell hosted a gathering of 350 cardinals and bishops on July 19 at Terrey Hills, an hour’s bus ride out of the city.

But the highlight of the entire World Youth Day experience for Bishop Silva was “definitely seeing the joy and enthusiasm of all the pilgrims.”

“Just seeing all of the young people having a good time and celebrating their faith and love,” he said, “That was very inspiring.”

“I guess I expected it to be like this,” he said of the overflowing streets and venues, “but the experience is even more than I expected it to be.”

Randwick vigil and Mass

If weary feet are any indicator of the World Youth Day effect, than the Hawaii pilgrims felt its full force. On Saturday, July 19, many of the Hawaii group staying at the Sydney Central hostel left at 5 in the morning for their almost seven-mile trek to the Domain, a park where the U.S. bishops sponsored a Mass and gathering for all American pilgrims, and then on to Randwick Racecourse for the vigil and sleepover before Mass with Pope Benedict XVI. They lugged their sleeping bags and other camping supplies with them the whole way.

At Randwick, the Hawaiian flag marked the St. Michael and St. Augustine pilgrim spot at E10 with the Molokai Catholic Community not too far away. Other pilgrims were further afield in the sprawling grounds.

Late afternoon entertainment by the Matt Maher Band, Indian group Rexband, and former London gangster John Pridmore, and others, got everyone in the mood for the candlelight vigil and adoration with Pope Benedict XVI.

Despite the “freezing” temperatures, the Hawaii group survived the night. St. Michael’s group took turns doing all-night adoration at the nearby reconciliation/adoration tent. Steaming soup and hot chocolate were commodities in demand at the food booths. And everywhere one looked was a sea of Mylar blankets, sleeping bags and tents.

Sunday was cloudy but energy flowed through the crowd as the Holy Father twice circled the racetrack and passed right by the Hawaii group. By this time, almost 200,000 additional people joined the 235,000 who had camped out. Standing near the Hawaii group were Italian expatriates now living in Sydney, Leo Viola and Giuseppe Mangogna, who had come to share in the Catholic unity and to see the pope.

“The more we get together, the more strength we get,” Viola said.

Sts. Peter and Paul, Honolulu, parishioner Josephine Mundo, who came to Sydney with daughters Joalena and Julia, got emotional talking about the pilgrimage to and vigil at Randwick. “I think with all the miles that we walked carrying our things — and they got heavier as we went along — and the cold,” she said, “I’d do it again.”

“It was worth every ounce of pain,” she said.

“It just amazes me, maybe because Hawaii is so isolated, to see how many people there are that have the same faith,” she added. “That we can be in the same area at one time with people that don’t speak the same language but understand the message that is being said.”

After Mass, when Pope Benedict announced that Madrid would host the next World Youth Day in 2011, the crowd erupted in cheers and Hawaii pilgrims were already discussing going in three years.

The spirit of World Youth Day had taken hold and the church is now better for it. As Pope Benedict XVI told his young audience in his final homily, “The church needs your idealism and your spirit so she can remain young.”