August 16, 2011
President John Garvey to Attend WYD and Address International Conference
For the first time since World Youth Day (WYD) was begun by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1985, a delegation of students from The Catholic University of America will together attend the international youth gathering with the Pope in Madrid this week.
Twenty-one students will represent Catholic University. President John Garvey will join the group for the second half of the weeklong event, which includes Masses, devotions, and audiences with Pope Benedict XVI.
"World Youth Day is an opportunity for young people to deepen their faith and commitment to Christ," says President Garvey. "Catholic University supports our World Youth Day pilgrims because we want them and all our students to strive for holiness and, as Blessed Pope John Paul II once said, be 'protagonists' in our common work of renewing society."
In the past, Catholic University students have attended WYD with groups from their home parishes and dioceses. Students with the University's Office of Campus Ministry initiated the joint trip this year, and the University helped cover the group's travel costs, which totaled about $2,200 a student. (See http://publicaffairs.cua.edu/releases/2011/WorldYouthDay.cfm ).
The student delegation flew to Spain Aug. 9 for visits to pilgrimage sites before the WYD activities. President Garvey will depart Aug. 17 and join the students the next day.
On Aug. 21, President Garvey will travel to Rimini, Italy, for the 32nd Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples, an annual international conference and cultural festival. He will speak at a session titled, "The University in the World" - along with Moshe Kaveh, president of Bar-Ilan University in Israel and Lorenzo Ornaghi, rector of Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. The Rimini conference hosts religious leaders, heads of states, philosophers, and entrepreneurs from around the world.
MEDIA: For more information, contact Katie Lee or Mary McCarthy in the Office of Public Affairs at 202-319-5600.
-30-#248