World Youth Day: A Turning Point

Leigh Ann Roman recalls the World Youth Day she attended 30 years ago as a significant turning point in her life of faith.

The photos of teen-agers and adults from my diocese at World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, have sent me back 30 years to the Denver World Youth Day in 1993, which has been called a turning point in the New Evangelization of the Catholic Church in America. 

As an agnostic religion reporter from a Pennsylvania newspaper, I covered the event with absolutely no background in the Roman Catholic faith. My participation gave me my first glimpse of the joy and sense of community in the Catholic Church, and it was a significant turning point toward my conversion, although I didn’t know it at the time. 

I was surprised at the awe and excitement others in the newsroom expressed when they learned that I would go with 300 students from the Pittsburgh Diocese to see the “Holy Father.” I wasn’t even familiar with that term at the time. These otherwise-cynical fellow reporters were so enthusiastic about the trip, but I had no idea what I was getting into. 

The trip was funded by a local businessman who paid for 300 teens go to on this trip. That is a huge financial commitment. The adult chaperones gave up their own vacation or personal time to watch over the teens on the trip, which was a real sacrifice. 

We slept on a gymnasium floor or outside on the ground. We traveled as a group. It was very hot, and the food was not memorable. For someone whose experience of religion involved simple churches, long sermons, and an occasional communion service with grape juice, I wondered what inspired such willingness in these people to give up money, time, and comfort. 

I did not get a definitive answer to that question from the trip. But I did get to know people who loved Pope St. John Paul II. I met people who loved Jesus Christ and the sacraments and for whom the experience of World Youth Day was pure joy. 

I met credible witnesses. By meeting people who loved Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, I began my journey toward knowing and loving Him, as well. 

In Denver in 1993, that journey involved 700,000 people who joined a 15-mile hike through and out of the city to Cherry Creek State Park, where the final Mass was held.  

On that hike, I got separated from my Pittsburgh group. By the time I arrived at the camp site where thousands of people would pray, worship, and sleep. I had found part of my group again. I was hot and tired, but I wasn’t alone. Even when I had been separated from my group, I had been among friends bound by our shared experience of this once-in-a-lifetime journey. 

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By meeting people who loved Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, I began my journey toward knowing and loving Him, as well. #CatholicMom

I can still remember some of the faces and names of the people who went on that trip from Pittsburgh, and I will always be grateful for the impact of that event on my life. I didn’t become Catholic until 1999, but in the 24 years since I have come to a much deeper understanding of what that trip must have meant to lifelong Catholics. 

I have also become convinced that Saint John Paul II’s guidance at the final Mass of World Youth Day 1993 is timeless.

Do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places, like the first apostles who preached Christ and the good news of salvation in the squares of cities, towns, and villages. This is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel … It is the time to preach it from the rooftops.  

Be not afraid. 

Copyright 2023 Leigh Ann Roman
Images: Albertyanks Albert Jankowski, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Neckradio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons