Thirty-one people from churches in the Coachella Valley are in Rio de Janeiro today for World Youth Day, the gathering of young Catholics from around the world that continues through Sunday.
Nineteen parishioners from Sacred Heart Parish in Palm Desert, 10 from St. Louis Catholic Church in Cathedral City and two from Our Lady of Soledad Catholic Church in Coachella are among the approximately 1 million people who made the trek to Brazil for World Youth Day, according to John Andrews of the Diocese of San Bernardino, which covers Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
The festival, which is held every few years, began Tuesday.
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Eric Avila, youth coordinator at Sacred Heart, said the group from his church started fundraising for the trip two years ago. The group -- mainly high school students and several chaperones -- left July 15 and will return early next week, Avila said.
They stopped in Peru to sightsee and arrived in Brazil early this week. They will stay with local families and learn about the culture and their faith, Avila told City News Service.
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"Our students will be out there and will be learning all this info... It's a really nice experience," said Avila, who attended World Youth Day in Madrid two years ago and in Sydney in 2008. "It's a big journey, we do see it as a pilgrimage."
Photographs on Sacred Heart's Facebook page showed its group in Lima, Peru, and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Avila said the group received a blessing at the Palm Desert church and attended a send-off mass in San Bernardino before it left. In Rio, they are expected to attend workshops -- which are organized by language -- and other events, such as Mass with Pope Francis on Sunday, which is expected to draw 1 million people.
Avila said the pope usually announces the location of the next World Youth Day.
"Once you find out, that's when everybody goes crazy... It's a very good experience for them," he said.
Avila said he didn't know how much the group raised for the trip.
Andrews said 97 people from the diocese are taking part in World Youth Day.
The Desert Sun reported that St. Louis members sold Fourth of July fireworks to raise money for youth programs, including a trip to World Youth Day.
World Youth Day has been held once in the United States, in Denver in 1993, and was started in 1986 by Pope John Paul II.
– City News Service.
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