Six young people from Stratford were among the 1.5 million young Catholics attending Sunday’s WYD mass in an aerodrome near Madrid. They were among the 200 or so New Zealander who joined the hundreds of thousands of young people, bearing flags from their countries and wearing hats to protect themselves from the sun, prayed, applauded and cheered during the service.
The Stratford group, mostly aged 17 or 18, was the largest group from Taranaki to attend the World Youth Day. Groups from New Plymouth also attended.
Their journey took them to Paris, Dijon, Taize, Lyon, St Etienne and Conques, places with historic ties to the Catholic orders who sent missionaries to New Zealand. They then visited Loures in the South of France before crossing into Spain to be hosted by Spanish families for five days
The members of the group worked hard for two years. They contributed to their parishes by catering meals, entertaining, visiting the sick, working with the school children and being involved in the church.
They have fundraised by gardening, cleaning, selling sheep manure, firewood and pinecones, doing the Warehouse stock-take, selling sausages and raffles.
Source
- Stratford Press
- Image: NZCBC