{"id":306756,"date":"2019-01-25T22:01:17","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T21:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/world-youth-day-in-the-bridge-nation\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:38:52","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:38:52","slug":"world-youth-day-in-the-bridge-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/world-youth-day-in-the-bridge-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"World Youth Day in the \u201cbridge\u201d nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 34th World Youth Day organized by the Catholic Church is underway in Panama. We turn to Panamanian journalist and Focolare member, Flor Ortega, for her firsthand comments.<\/em> The bridges logo of the 2019 WYD \u2013 with the main theme \u201cI am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word\u201d (Lk 1:38) – represents both the Isthmus of Panama and the spirit of welcome. A small strip of land, measuring just 75 square meters, between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Panama links not only the two Americas, but also all continents, through its famous canal frequented by world shipping. It is a welcoming, open-door country, particularly for the many migrants who are, and have ever been, moving South or North. How have you been preparing for this event?<\/strong> \u201cBack in 2016, on 31 July at the \u2018Campus Misericordiae\u2019 in Krak\u00f3w, Poland, Pope Francis announced that the 34th World Youth Day in 2019 would be in Panama. The Focolare Movement in the central American region greeted the news with great enthusiasm,\u201d recalls Panamanian journalist Flor Ortega. \u201cIt took a while for updates to get through. We set up commissions to be able to transmit information on the preparation in all its aspects quickly and effectively. Now the WYD has a strong media and social media presence\u201d. On 17 May, in Panama City, during a Eucharistic celebration with thousands of people, Archbishop Jos\u00e9 Domingo Ulloa launched the idea of a series of Prayer Days on the 22nd of every month leading up to the WYD. The Archbishop then personally asked the youth of the Focolare Movement to prepare the first such day, on 22 June. How did the young people react to this proposal?<\/strong> \u201cWith real enthusiasm and commitment. Carmen Cecilia from Panama, told us how this commitment actually helped her to a new understanding of prayer, of the Eucharist and of the Rosary \u2018as opportunities to meet Jesus face to face\u2019.\u201d Many young people, members of the Focolare Movement in Panama and other countries, have been working for months on a two-day event at the end of the WYD, 29-31 January, for around 400 youth.<\/strong> \u201cAdults have been offering their support by organizing the meals and accommodation, as well as fund-raising. The young people have been concentrating on creating the online registration system, setting up a consultation service and \u2018call center\u2019 connecting people wishing to contribute from outside Panama. The women\u2019s Focolare centre in Panama has become something of a logistics coordination point. Keilyn from Costa Rica described it as \u2018as opportunity to get to know the community of Panama which is very united and hard-working, a real example to us all\u2019.” Among those arriving from around the world, Jes\u00fas Mor\u00e1n, Focolare Vice President, from the Movement\u2019s international centre in Rome, Italy. And the international Focolare band, Gen Verde travelled from Italy to perform in two pre-WYD events. The first was in Chitr\u00e9, provincial capital of Herrera, on the Gulf of Panama, the second in Col\u00f3n on the Atlantic coast. Gen Verde will be performing again on 26 January at the vigil leading up to the concluding Mass to be celebrated by Pope Francis. \u201cPro mundi beneficio\u201d, \u201cFor the Benefit of the World\u201d proclaims Panama\u2019s national motto. What does it mean?<\/strong> \u00abThe motto, historically, is linked to the service provided by the canal. But now, ideally, we\u2019d like to extend it to the message that will come out of this World Youth Day!\u00bb <\/p>\n

Chiara Favotti<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 34th World Youth Day organized by the Catholic Church is underway in Panama. We turn to Panamanian journalist and Focolare member, Flor Ortega, for her firsthand comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}