Catholic Union Deputy Director, James Somerville-Meikle, writes:
The haters will hate, but by any metric the global gathering of Catholics at World Youth Day in Lisbon last week was a great success. In many ways it showed the Church at its best – joyful, vibrant, and universal.
Over 1.5 million people had travelled to Portugal for the event, including myself. The sight of so many young Catholics in one place was truly inspiring.
While everyone who took part will have benefitted in some way, it was particularly powerful for pilgrims from countries where the Catholic faith is in the minority.
Amongst the hoards of Spanish, Italian, and French flags, there were some from Lebanon, Jordan and even one from China. The group I was with did our bit to boost the number of British flags present.
It made me wonder if such a gathering could ever take place on British soil. The UK is the only G7 nation apart from Japan not to have hosted a World Youth Day. It would be huge boost to the Church in this country if it were to happen.
In the meantime, the British pilgrims who have returned home from Lisbon will hopefully have greater confidence in their faith and share something of the joy we encountered.