World Youth Day: Looking back and ahead to Madrid

“The most important took place at the Palm Sunday Vigil in Rome,” the website reports. More than 300,000 young people from around the world participated in the International Youth Jubilee, where Pope John Paul presented them with a wooden cross.When the UN declared 1985 the International Year of Youth, the Catholic Church organized another international event on Palm Sunday, March 31, which gathered 350,000 youth together in St. Peter’s Square. “Following this event,” the website said, “the Pope instituted World Youth Day with annual cadence.” Subsequent World Youth Day sites (and their approximate attendance) have included:—Buenos Aires, Argentina (1987), 1 million.—Santiago de Compostela, Spain (1989), 500,000.—Czestochowa, Poland (1991), 1.6 million.—Denver, Colorado, USA (1993), 600,000.—Manila, Philippines (1995), 4 million.—Paris, France (1997), 1.2 million.—Rome, Italy (2000), 2 million.—Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2002), 800,000.—Cologne, Germany (2005), 1.1 million.—Sydney, Australia (2008), 400,000.This week, The Tidings presents photo memories of previous World Youth Day celebrations.{gallery width=100 height=100}gallery/2011/0805/wydmain/{/gallery}