A group of 98 pilgrims, many from across the Wisconsin Province, participated in a journey from Milwaukee to Cologne, Germany where they joined over a million other young people from around the globe at World Youth Day festivities and a huge outdoor Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI.

Dubbed the “Pilgrimage with the Sacred Heart of Jesus to Cologne,” the group left August 9 and, after an opening Mass with Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan at O’Hare Airport, made their first stops in Paris at the Notre Dame Cathedral and Sacre Coeur Basilica (Sacred Heart Basilica). Marquette University and the Eucharistic Youth Movement of the National Office of the Apostleship of Prayer sponsored the trip.

People from around the globe gather for World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany. Pictured here (from left) are Luke Strand, a Milwaukee seminarian, SJ, Fr. Will Prospero, SJ, Bryce Evans (Marquette University) and Sarah Shaffer (University of Detroit Mercy).

“We spent the night at the Sacre Coeur guesthouse and learned about the history of the basilica and perpetual Eucharistic Adoration that has gone on since the basilica’s construction in the mid 1800s,” says Fr. Will Prospero, SJ, one of the trip’s organizers.

Besides Fr. Prospero, seven other Jesuits joined the pilgrimage: Fr. Steve Spahn, SJ (Maryland), Fr. Christopher Lockard, SJ (New Orleans), Fr. Casey Beaumier, SJ (Wisconsin), Fr. Matt Gamber, SJ (Chicago), and scholastics Phil Hurley, SJ (Maryland), Cristobal Fones, SJ (Chile), and Chris Collins, SJ (Wisconsin).

About half the remaining pilgrims were 45 Marquette University students and recent graduates. The rest of the group was made up of religious and young people from various other cities including Washington, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Nashville.

“I have never met a happier bunch of young people than those at World Youth Day,” Fr. Prospero says. “This happiness came not from material or physical enjoyments, but from the knowledge of Jesus Christ who is with us as we journey as the body of Christ, experiencing both the sufferings and joys of life.”

Other stops along the way included the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal in Rue de Bac; Paray le Monial, the city in south central France where the original visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque occurred; Taizé, with the ecumenical Christian community of monks known for their simple and beautiful chants; and Lorelei on the Rhine River in Germany for the German Jesuit gathering of about 3,500 pilgrims.

“We stayed in tents and it rained, but being the Sacred Heart pilgrimage, ministered the ‘Adoration Tent’ where the perpetual Eucharistic Exposition was held,” Fr. Prospero says. “We also ran several praise and worship services.”

Finally they boarded boats for a ride up the Rhine to Bonn (near Cologne) where they slept on the floor of a school for the five days of celebrations.

World Youth Day, with its theme, “We have come to worship Him” (Matt 2:2) attracted 800,000 pilgrims to various related events and more than 1 million from 93 nations to the Papal Mass and concluding the events.

For more photos of the trip go to: www.mu.edu/um/wyd2005/

Tents dot a field at Lorelei on the Rhine River in Germany where about 3,500 pilgrims attended the German Jesuit gathering just prior to World Youth Day.

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