.- Diverse Catholic associations in Lima and Bolivia have organized youth gatherings to follow up on the historic meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany. In Peru, the Christian Life Movement (CLM) organized gatherings with pilgrims and their family and friends in order to share testimonies about the experience in Cologne.
Some 800 people met at the Our Lady of Evangelization Pastoral Center in Lima to pray the rosary in thanksgiving and to mediate on the pilgrimage of the Magi and their encounter with the Lord.
CLM members presented a brief theatrical play in which various young people shared their stories about each day spent at World Youth Day.
“Just as the Magi returned home by another route after their encounter with the Lord, we also can say that we have changed, that the encounter with the Lord has left us different and that we are walking on different paths in our lives after this pilgrimage,” said Gianfranco Castellanos, one of the event’s organizers.
In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, some 1000 young people gathered for an event organized by the Salesians under the WYD theme, “We have come to adore Him.” Young people from La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, Oruro, and Potosi met for a musical festival on September 25 and attended a special Mass the next day.After Mass, the young people processed to different parishes in Santa Cruz for Eucharistic adoration.
