O.M.G.!

Reflections and Ruminations on World Youth Day 2023

It’s Monday, August 7, and it seems the whole of Lisbon is breathing a collective sigh of relief. For almost a week, several hundred thousand young adults, their chaperones (wish there had been more!), and all sorts of religious leaders converged on the city. Estimates of how many actually attended the six-day event range from half a million to around a million. The count for the papal mass on Sunday was 1.5 million. That’s a lot of people for a city with a population of a little over 500,000 residents.

World Youth Day is sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church, which invites youth in their teens up to age 30 for six days of worship, learning, and fellowship. While the church leaders at the Vatican choose the location, the word around here is that the Portuguese government actively lobbied for the event to be held in Lisbon. The highlight of the week, of course, is the appearance of the pope. Pope Francis arrived on Wednesday, escorted by two jet fighters that I swear flew within 25 feet of our roof. Although his health is frail these days, he had a pretty full schedule meeting with government leaders, church leaders, charities, and various groups, including the victims of sexual abuse. The big event was the papal mass yesterday, to which it seemed everything else that happened during the week was just prelude.

To be honest, I found myself experiencing conflicting emotions during those six days that turned Lisbon on its head. On the one hand, running into people on the street from literally all over the world is still a pretty cool thing for this south Alabama boy. The groups of youth that paraded up and down our streets were usually led by someone carrying a giant flag or three. Usually these were national flags, but there were a lot of flags representing cities, parishes, and religious societies. I met youth from about 20 countries including Malaysia, Australia, Columbia, India, South Africa, as well as Canada and the USA. Occasionally a group would gather in a park or on the sidewalk to sing, and they sang really well!

The church I am associated with, St. George’s Anglican, was asked to host 5 days of events in partnership with a Catholic religious order called Chemin Neuf. The order is a product of the charismatic renewal movement of the 1970’s. Headquartered in France, it has communities in several different countries, including one at the Episcopal cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and one under the direction of Archbishop Justin Welby, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Young adults of any Christian denomination can be a member. It’s mission is to promote ecumenism and church unity, with a particular emphasis on youth. In my role as an Anglican priest, I was invited to participate in the events of the week which included worship, small groups, seminars, and spiritual direction. We hosted two archbishops during the week, both of whom were a real hit with the youth. I met some of the most amazing youth over those few days whose passion and energy was contagious. What impressed me the most about them was their deep concern about the environment, social justice, and inclusion. And, they are thinking for themselves and not buying what their religious leaders are trying to sell them if it smells of hypocrisy, judgementalism, and control. So, meeting and being in community with hundreds of smart, passionate, generous, and kind youth was definitely a good thing.

On the other hand, many in our city had not-so-positive experiences. To begin with, some of the decisions by city officials regarding transportation defy logic. The city was divided into zones, some of which were closed to traffic and public transportation at various times. In our area of the city, trams were not running at all and several of the metro stations were closed for hours at the oddest times. To be fair, I was able to get to where I needed to, but it took a lot of effort. The transportation system here is just not designed to handle that many people.

Unfortunately, some of the pilgrims were just plain rude and disrespectful. The park in our neighborhood is in shambles, and the garbage, mostly beer bottles and plastic cups were piled up on our street every morning. Our neighborhood was invaded nightly by several hundred of them, who drank heavily until early in the morning. (I know they were pilgrims because they all wore the official youth day badges.) David observed a group of youth being chewed out by the locals because of their destructive behavior in the park. Large groups trying to get on the buses would cut in line and not even bother to swipe their metro card or pay. Human nature being what it is, it’s not surprising that when you get that many young adults together there’s going to be some trouble makers.

The verdict is out on whether the city’s businesses are better off today than they were a week ago. From what I’ve read, not so much. A lot of restaurants in our neighborhood were closed, and the ones that were open didn’t seem to have a whole lot of traffic from the pilgrims. Of course, McDonald’s and Burger King made a mint—the lines to get in these restaurants were out the door and around the block. And the bars in our neighborhood probably made the owners millionaires! It will be interesting to see the economic data when it comes out.

Today it seems the city is taking a nap. Very few tourists are out and about. The neighborhood is quiet and the buses are running on time. It’s good the city is back to it’s normal, if somewhat unpredictable, patterns.

As a person of faith and based on my experiences of the past week, I’m glad World Youth Day was held here this year. But, OMG, I am glad it’s over!

The park near our apartment. These beautiful flowers were trampled by some naughty pilgrims.

Not everyone welcomed the Pope to Lisbon. The sexual abuse scandals here in Portugal still looms large in the minds of many.

Pope Francis on his way to one of many meetings.

Hundreds of amazing youth packed St. George’s Anglican Church during the week.

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