Lawrence Lam @ WYD2002
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Tuesday July 23: And So It Begins What a day! We all reluctantly got up after a late night and soon afterwards went to breakfast at the Holy Rosary Parish Hall. It was a very simple breakfast: bagels, bread, jam, plums and oranges. The Parish Staff also gave us free water bottles. During breakfast we had some conversation with the Columbians. Apparently Nicole was up late last night and they taught her a Spanish dance. It was all caught on video tape. Nicole was wearing their dancing dress too. It was quite hilarious just because Nicole was pretty crazy last night. She was hyper all night that I tried to temporarily calm her down by bringing her to the SMC chapel. One Columbian struggled to chat with us using his computerized Spanish-English dictionary. Nicole in turn tried her best Spanish, which was not all that bad! After breakfast we went to Brennan Hall for our first meeting with the rest of the group. So besides those of us who stayed over at SMC, we were joined by Karen, Denise, Isabella and Bronwyn. A reporter from La Presse also came and decided to follow us around. There were two events in the morning that interested me: Youth to Youth Evangelization and Focolare's Interfaith Dialogue. We decided to go to the Focolare event at St. Patrick's Church. Almost instantly the Powerpoint projection combined with lack of sleep triggered a really bad headache for Nicole. She had to leave to get some Tylenol. This Interfaith Dialogue thing turned out to be a very cheesy interactive play based on "The Golden Rule". It's not that there was anything wrong with this, but it was just not for our age group. After the cheesy song and when people were asked to dance along we were outta there! Now we had to decide what else to do. Referring to our pilgrim guides, many wanted to go see the "World Stage" at Metro Hall. A few of us wanted to check out the Genocide Awareness Project that Stephanie Gray was running at City Hall. It was only 11 am at this point so we went to First Canadian Place to get some lunch. I had a meal ticket for lunch so I thought I'd just wait to go to the Ex for lunch. I was a little confused since the pilgrim guide did not mention the lunch for today. While the others ate at the food court I went up to visit my co-op buddies. I don't think anybody can avoid the WYD spirit. Russell even asked me for a pilgrim bag. I went up to the 23rd floor to get a notebook and Vanessa gave me a notebook with handles (which I'm using to write this). She even remarked that the red cover matches my pilgrim bag. When I returned to the group they made a general decision to not see GAP and go to Metro Hall. So we walked there together from FCP. Challenge the Church was there busily handing out condoms to pilgrims. Unfortunately a CBC camera was following them around and giving them attention. I felt obligated to do something so I went up there and introduced myself to Milton Chan, the leader of the gang, who I saw on the CBC earlier. I told him to stop getting in the way of WYD, to stop handing out condoms and if he really wanted to make his concerns known, to bring them up with the bishops by joining WYD. The way he was going about Church reforms was based on an objective to change Catholicism into a totally different religion. Dan said giving out condoms to Catholics was like giving pork to Muslims or Jews. With that he walked away speechless continuing his quest to pollute the pilgrims. But he was generally a polite guy, just with a messed up morality. I talked to a lot of groups of pilgrims and they knew that something wasn't right about this little bunch. The world stage performance was delayed, so Dan, Terry and I decided to go
get lunch at the CNE. We got to Union Station and man, it was packed! The crowd
The next worry was about making the next meeting time. We had walked a long way and had quite a bit more to go. So Terry and Dan left me to go back to Brennan Hall while I stayed and got the food. I said I'd stay at the CNE and meet them back later. We did not know how long we would have to wait to get our meals.
I walked this stuff back to the automotive building where Terry told me to meet. It was only 2:30 and we were to meet at 4. I called Terry on his cell and he suggested it would be alright if I went back up to Brennan Hall. So I hopped on a streetcar and started heading back. On the way there, I got a call from Andrew asking me where I was because they World Stage group had already gone down to the Ex. D'oh! I got off the streetcar and went back to the Ex. For some strange reason, Andrew refused to come out to the Automotive building to meet me. Instead I had to go find him in the crowd by the main stage waiting for the Opening Mass to begin. I was really frustrated by the directions but I eventually found the bunch. I could finally put down the lunch I was carrying for the past little while. I sat down and quickly ate my lunch. We were expecting that Terry would be able to join us when he got here. After all, Karen went to refill her water bottle and she managed to come back. As we waited, we met the people around us and I got to trade a few more pins. Some Franciscan nuns gave me a medal with their order's founder and another group gave me a dog tag. The crowd was quickly building and it was looking impossible that the rest of our group would be able to join us if it were more than just Terry and Dan. We got a call at around 4:40. There were about 7 of them. I realized it would not be possible to get them here so I told Terry that we'd meet after mass. He did not like that too much, but I just said we'd have to modify our organizational plans later.
After mass we go back together with the rest of the group. We were joined by J.P. Adamovsky and a couple of his friends. I apologized to Terry for the separation and then we headed off to get dinner. Michael Chun went to go get the food. In the meantime, we finished the tuna that Terry turned down. Michael was back pretty soon even though we sat down outside the Queen Elizabeth building which was still far away from the food station. Dinner was more coleslaw, macaroni and cheese and more apples. Afterwards we had two options of Youth Festival events again. Most wanted to
go swing dancing at the World Youth Alliance's Culture of Life cafe at Medieval We left the concert shortly before the end because I sort of wanted to go home. After seeing the crowds at the streetcars I realized that it wouldn't be happening. We had to walk to St. Andrew's Station. Bronwyn and I walked faster than the rest of the group so I realized my feet began to hurt. I mocked her: "Bronwyn, my feet are a mess" but I don't think she was too pleased. We slowed down to let the rest catch up. At King Street we saw a street-crazy who had a bucket full of change and exclaiming "they don't call me the pope, but the man with the great hope!" There were plenty of pilgrims on the streets and we talked to a lot of them and we sang songs on the way. I had promised Bronwyn to walk her to her residence at Ryerson because it was a shady part of the city. On the way back to SMC I walked by a window of a restaurant with pilgrims getting a group shot. I stood behind the window and got myself in that picture. I think they'll appreciate it later. Well, we got back to SMC at 12:10. I was on night watch tonight to I used the time to write this. I don't know if your day was as eventful. Let me know. It's only been one day but I'm so happy here. The streets of Toronto are so full of goodness! I think Heaven is one eternally big World Youth Day. Well, I hope I'm not too tired tomorrow. |
It is not my intent to offend anyone here. What I wrote was straight from the heart: uncensored, uncut. |
was made up mostly of Italians going wild and singing their National Anthem. We
decided to just walk to the Ex. On the way there while in the Air Canada Centre,
I made another trade of a Trillium for an American Flag pin. There were a lot of
us making the pilgrimage to the Ex on foot. I also made a trade with some First
Nations kids for a cool pin of their band. 
As we approached the Ex I heard a voice over loud speakers. It was someone
going on and on about Catholicism. I was worried that it was some fundamentalist
on a soap box saying anti-Catholic things. But then I saw a large row of porta-potties
and then a jumbotron with the speaker: It was Prime Minister Jean Chretien
greeting the Pope. He spoke with energy unlike recent footage of him and he was
very understandable! Just hearing him and then watching him walk a little bit
made me want to cry. I heard that he actually walked down the stairs from the
plane rather than use a cargo lift as was expected. I have yet go to back home
and check out the footage. But I know this: the Youth of this World and their
prayers gave him this energy. 
The entry point into the Ex at the Princes Gates was highly secured. We all
had our bags checked with a metal detector before entering. The CNE grounds
themselves were quite a sight. There were towering banners of the WYD patrons.
The Automotive building had a huge banner of an icon of Christ and the grounds
was bustling with activity. We soon learned that the food tent was all the way
at the other side of the Ex, behind Medieval Times. We would have to walk all
the way there after our already-long hike from Union Station. Now I was a
bit worried because we would need six tickets but we only had four. We would
have to find two somewhere but it just so happened that Terry ran into two
University Cafe people and they gave us their tickets. Perfect, set complete!
I finally reached the food area and the lineup was actually not too bad. I
did get to meet some people while I was waiting in line. I had a mostly-French
conversation with someone named Sylvan from France. I asked if he had anything
to trade. He first offered me a WYD pin, which we all had as part of our pilgrim
packs. Then he offered me deodorant. I just said "it's okay, never mind,
you'll probably need it soon anyways". I also met someone from Germany. He
was excited about the next WYD in his home country. (The WYD message board
leaked it). There were also two people from Michigan in the food line. They were
from Singles for Christ, which is affiliated with Youth for Christ, one of the
clubs I was part of last term at Waterloo. One of them said that the line would
not be too long. I thought he was joking but right before I knew it, I was
carrying a six pack of WYD water and a bag full of apples, granola bars,
coleslaw and tuna with crackers. Mmmm.
Mass was pretty cool. There was some praise and worship in the beginning. I
remember Dave asked me if we sing "Oh Happy Day". He seems to think
denominations depend on what songs are sung. My answer for him now can be
"Do we ever!" There was also a liturgical dance which involved
disabled youth. It was very heart warming. There were many bishops on stage
wearing their miters. It was a solemn mass too with incense and the works. Terry
wanted me to note his quote of the day: "You can hear the incense".
Quite a sight. The mass itself was amazing. 150,000 were singing songs together.
They had a separate screen for sign
language. I thought that was cool. The WYD
Cross was brought up in a procession and the screen displayed some of the past
WYD events. Bronwyn was excited to see herself on screen when the Jumbotrons
showed the Portageurs. The helicopter view showed the sheer size of the event. I
could not really see how huge the crowd was from my point of view. I did not
like the fact that the camera guys were drawing the pilgrim's attention away
because when pilgrims saw themselves on screen they went crazy. The communion
also seemed very disorganized because the communion stations were supposed to be
at the towers. We ended up going to a railing. I also question the use of lay
ministers given the number of priests and deacons present. The wafer itself had
a different pattern than what I was used to seeing.
One comment from Cardinal Ambrozic's homily was interesting. Given that the
Canadian leadership does not tend to make any meaningful statements, I found
Ambrozic speaking out against the "political correctness which claims that
all religions are equal" was refreshing to hear. I was glad he would make
such a daring statement in front of the international media. The mass ended with
testimonies in different languages, also with daring statements contrary to
PC-speak. I was quite encouraged by all that. I was able to understand what was
being said because 104.9 FM provided instant translation. Unfortunately, it
seemed to interfere with some other channel and so sometimes I heard music
playing during a prayer.
Times. So I went to go watch for a bit. I really wanted to go to see Critical
Mass at the Bandshell which is what I did shortly after. I managed to get to the
front where I found Tina and Michelle. The Concert was called Contact me: lawrencewyd@catholic.org