Baltimore pilgrims enthralled by journey to Lisbon for World Youth Day

Luke Wayson, part of Baltimore’s delegation to World Youth Day in Lisbon, had one succinct way of describing his experience in Portugal.

“Astounding,” said the 20-year-old parishioner of St. Joseph in Cockeysville.

The Boston College finance and philosophy major said he was overwhelmed by the experience of joining more than a half million other young Catholics for a global celebration of their faith.

Father Matthew Himes, left, traveled with young adults from the Archdiocese of Baltimore to attend the 2023 World Youth Day in Fatima, Portugal. (Courtesy UMBC Catholics)

“From the start, flying right over the Christ the Redeemer statue into Lisbon, it’s been so cool,” said Wayson, a Loyola Blakefield, Towson, graduate, who said he cobbled together nearly $5,000 for the trip through donations. “The whole experience has just been unreal, from our trip to Fatima, seeing where an actual miracle occurred, to meeting so many people from other countries who share the same belief in Jesus Christ.”

Wayson was one of nearly 30,000 Americans who made the trip to Lisbon, representing about 1,300 groups. The United States had one of the five largest contingents with most of the pilgrims ranging in age between 18 and 25.

The Baltimore group of more than 50 had a packed 11-day itinerary, arriving in Lisbon July 29 and taking a city tour, including stops at Belem Tower, Jeronimos Monastery and St. Anthony of Padua Church.

The group spent the next two days touring Fatima, learning the story of the three children to whom Our Lady of Fatima appeared, beginning at their homes in Aljustrel. They prayed the Stations of the Cross and visited Valinhos, where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the children, and continued to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.

World Youth Day festivities began Aug. 1 with a welcoming Mass. Morning catechesis with English-speaking bishops and priests was held Aug. 2 with youths venturing to a designated church or school in the city to pray, celebrate and learn together with music, testimonials and Mass. The group enjoyed events with Pope Francis Aug. 3 and 4. After a walking pilgrimage and candlelight vigil Aug. 5, the event concluded with a closing Papal Mass Aug. 6.

Wayson said the Aug. 5 walking pilgrimage drew such a crowd that the Baltimore group needed more than two hours just to go a little over a mile and half through the crowded streets. After a night of “partying, and engaging in adoration and prayer with the pope,” according to Wayson, the group slept out in the park on a tarp and was awakened at 6:30 a.m. to prepare for the pope’s arrival about 8 a.m. in his popemobile.

*Young adults from the Archdiocese of Baltimore are greeted by Archbishop William E. Lori, right, in Fatima while attending World Youth Day 2023 in Portugal. (Courtesy Father Matthew Himes*)

More than 1.5 million people attended the closing Mass in which Pope Francis told the young attendees not to let their “great dreams” of changing the world be “stopped by fear.”

Wayson said on the return trip to the hotel, “People from all over the world played music and sang random songs. It was really hot (about 100 degrees), but to me, this made the walk all the more memorable, and dare I say fun.”

“The spirit is unlike anything I’ve seen,” Wayson said of his experience in Lisbon. “You can’t go anywhere else to get this experience where everyone else has the same purpose. If you want to experience the world, you just need to come to one place. Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be this good.”

Sophia Jauquet, 19, a Mount de Sales Academy, Catonsville, graduate studying biology at Barry College in Miami, Fla., had similar thoughts about the trip.

The parishioner of Our Lady of Victory in Arbutus said her favorite part was the trip to Fatima.

“It’s truly been an amazing experience,” said Jauquet, who raised her funds for the trip working summer jobs. “I just hope I can take this beauty back home and share the experience with my family and friends. It has been a feeling of overwhelming joy.

“It is so inspiring to see that so many people from other parts of the world share the same desire to share our love for Christ. It’s been a blessing to be a part of what they call the ‘Youth of the Pope.’”

Father Matthew Himes, associate director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, said helping lead the Baltimore delegation was inspiring for him as well.

“I’m still a young adult, too, so it’s been very inspiring for me,” said Father Himes, 33, also a chaplain at UMBC, who attended his first World Youth Day as a seminarian in 2016 in Poland. “It’s a beautiful experience of the universal Church. It’s great to see the people of our church come alive.”

Young adults from University of Maryland Baltimore County and the Archdiocese of Baltimore visit Fatima during World Youth Day in Portugal. (Courtesy Father Matthew Himes)

The scope of the event impressed seminarian Alex Kulik, 28, who is serving his pastoral year at St. Joseph in Cockeysville.

“It’s amazing to see all of the other people from the different countries,” said Kulik, a graduate of Calvert Hall, Towson, and Tulane University, New Orleans. “It is just a vivid picture of how Christianity and the Gospel have reached the entire world.”

Kulik, who said his favorite moments were going to Fatima and getting within 15 feet of the pope, hopes to put the experience to good use when he returns to the Baltimore area.

“As a seminarian, it’s been a great experience,” he said. “It’s clear from this event that the church is very alive. There’s a huge generation of young people who are enthused about the church.”

Kulik said he plans to give a presentation to his parish when he returns, focusing on the message “that we’re all in this together.”

He said it was his first extensive travel to Europe and he can’t wait to experience it again.

Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori had an abbreviated trip compared to the 11 days the rest of the Baltimore contingent spent in Rome.

Archbishop Lori and his priest-secretary, Father Tyler Kline, arrived in Lisbon on Friday coming directly from the Aug. 1-3 Knights of Columbus convention in Orlando, Fla. The archbishop is the supreme chaplain of the Knights.

After dinner on Friday with the Baltimore seminarians who were in Lisbon, Archbishop Lori celebrated Mass with the rest of the pilgrims from Baltimore, had breakfast with them and blessed them as they headed out for the vigil.

An estimated 1.5 million young people gathered in Lisbon’s Tejo Park waited for hours in near 100-degree weather to participate in the World Youth Day vigil with Pope Francis.

On Saturday night, Archbishop Lori attended the vigil with Pope Francis and was one of nearly 700 bishops and 10,000 priests who concelebrated the closing Mass on Sunday with the Holy Father.

To close the weekend, Archbishop Lori had dinner with a group from the Knights of Columbus.

The next World Youth Day will be held in Seoul, South Korea, in 2027.

Email Gerry Jackson at gjackson@CatholicReview.org

To view more photos from the Archdiocese of Baltimore group’s trip to World Youth Day in Portugal, click through the slideshow below: