Lawrence Lam @ WYD2002

Jeff

Hello all,

Well after a memorable weekend and after a summer of hearing all these fantastic stories from people traveling from place to place around the world (Ben, Ami, Kris, Glenn, thanks!) I've been inspired to write about my impressions this weekend from attending the World Youth Days in Toronto.

Yes I went to it, the World Youth Days, that thing blocking traffic and disrupting normal life in Toronto all week long! I'd probably have to consider myself a fairly religious Catholic. I definitely follow many of its values and moral standards, and at some points during my life I've been a fairly consistent regular at Sunday mass; at the same time I'm far from a 'hardcore' though, I don't say grace every day, don't have nightly prayers, and over the past 2 years my mass attendance has been more the Christmas and Easter type than anything else. So basically going to see the Pope, I didn't really know what to expect, and in terms of reasons for going, it was partially for the spirituality and the opportunity to see the Pope one last time, but probably more so for the social experience of a lifetime at a big over night party with a half million invited guests.

So off I went on Saturday morning not knowing at all what to expect. My high school friend Lawrence was the person who had convinced me to go with his group from the U of T St. Michael's College campus (St. Mike's was my high school so it was a natural fit), I arrived not knowing much of the itinerary or what type of environment we would be in. I only knew that I was supposed to bring a sleeping bag, pillow, contact lens solution and maybe a warm sweater, the schedule would consist of an overnight sleepover at Downsview Park on Saturday night and the mass on Sunday, so basically I knew the bare minimum. When I arrived I finally met up with the group from St. Mike's, they said, "off we go for a 6 hour walk!," Literally! We spent out entire morning walking in a mass pilgrimage of probably a hundred thousand people walking from St. Clair West Station (in uptown Toronto) to Downsview Park (the very north end of North York). It was actually pretty fun as we walked up the Allen Rd expressway that was blocked off just for this event. Rarely do you ever have the chance to just sit down in the middle of an expressway so obviously I took advantage of that opportunity! Everyone had their banners and flags representing probably every country in the world, it was quite an experience meeting new people and singing along and cheering with them. Had a bit of the atmosphere of an incredibly HUGE frosh week.

When we finally made it to Downsview Park we spent the remainder of the day settling in, finding a nice spot. Although we were far away from the main stage, we were at least centred directly towards the stage so that we could see the Pope, even if he would be the size of maybe an ant. At night, the Pope arrived choppered in along with his 3 escort helicopters to deliver a really powerful Vigil. The highlight was definitely the candle light ceremony. Lawrence told me that the last time the Pope visited Canada in 1984, he lit a candle that would be an eternal flame. This flame was maintained up to this day for the last 18 years and was presented to him earlier in the week as a gift. In return at this vigil he took the flame and used it to light a few candles in the front row of the pilgrimage who then lit their neighbours candles, and so on and so on. It was pretty amazing watching the place light up with this flame, obviously a very symbolic moment.

When the vigil finally ended around 10, the party began as everyone started singing and dancing all over. No joke, what a party it was, 500 000 people in attendance for this event! The Toronto Sun had fittingly called in "Popestock" and was actually very reminiscent... save the pot, booze and hippies. But nevertheless it was craziness. I walked around with a few friends joining in all these different cultural dances, I was amazed by the spirit and enthusiasm in the air! Man, I gotta hand it to the Polish people (Aleks you would have been so proud) ! They are absolutely insane! I'd never seen people go so hard dancing, cheering, and singing throughout the whole night never letting up at any point to take a breather. People who went to bed early had some serious trouble trying to block out the chant of "Poliska!" That was an absolutely incredible night, got a lot of good O-week ideas throughout the whole thing too! :)

I eventually got to bed around 3 in the morning, waking up at 6 as the heavy rain finally started to pour down. Let me tell you something a little interesting and creepy about this rain. It was actually expected by weather forecasts to storm all night long, and at 7pm we could definitely start to feel some very light showers. Everyone thought "Oh great, the rains coming and now we gotta sit through a 3 hour vigil in a thunderstorm"... Amazingly somehow, although it rained throughout the remainder of Toronto, the cloud passed through Downsview Park without a wink, I don't know how it happened, but it managed to stay clear the entire vigil. Everyone was so relieved that the weather hadn't put a damper on our evening. When the Pope left, a mild shower began again, very light maybe a few drops here and there but the clouds were thick black, once again we thought: "oh great, what a great way to sleep, soggy sleeping bags, muddy grass, cold weather!" and it's not like you want an umbrella when there's lightening so what do you do?! Again though, it passed over us, although the cloud didn't move, it just didn't start to rain at Downsview, yet thundering through the reminder of Toronto! Crazy eh?! Some of my more religious friends started going on about the power of prayer and how the 500 000 peoples' spirit had managed to keep the storm away, I listened very interested but still stayed a little bit sceptical. At 6 in the morning I guess the rain had finally had enough and erupted, some thought of it as God's wake up call, After stopping for a brief moment, the heavy rain began again and continued on adding some very strong winds. Some huge helium filled balloon lights ripped off the main stage and off into the atmosphere while our Jumbotron in front of us gave way and blacked out. I was actually pretty damn scared, given the intensity of the wind and the whole place starting to fall apart before my very eyes. Funny enough though, when the Pope arrived, the sun began to appear, and not a few minutes after his first words, the storm stopped, the skies cleared and the temperature rose to a beaming 32 degrees! Like I said, I'm not the most spiritual guy, but all this was a bit too coincidental to me... you can take it whatever way you want, but to me, a miracle had taken place and something was watching over us.

Anyhow, the mass came and went, I'm not going to go on about it, but it was really really powerful, the Pope performed the entire ceremony which was also something of a miracle given his age and current health. 

When we eventually left, I expected a 5 hour wait to get home given the million people that would be in attendance, never have I been so impressed with the TTC as they had bus after bus after bus lined up ready to go! BACCHUS never would have been more proud. Imagine Hazel St. lined up end to end, bumper to bumper with buses circling back and forth waiting to take people to Bingemans during O-week. It was essentially that shuttling people to the subway, which then was also extremely well organized, all in all the amount of time I had to spend waiting in lines was about 10 minutes!!! "We Line Up" university will need to take some notes.

Anyhow just wanted to share my experience, it was definitely among the best two days I've ever spent and something I'll never forget, wow what a celebration of diversity and culture with all the different people from around the world united by religion. Such a peaceful place too, at one point a pair of cops were skipping rope with some children. Lawrence was telling me, "You know the Hippies had it right, the peace, the unity, the love... they just needed God." In other words, it was very much that type of environment that probably took place during the 60s, only MORE peaceful, LESS corrupt, and MORE direction and unity... A definite paradise. 

Hope everyone is doing well! 33 days to O-week (not that I'm counting or anything)!!!!

Jeff

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It is not my intent to offend anyone here. What I wrote was straight from the heart: uncensored, uncut.