Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) It is no accident that the 31st World Youth Day, currently underway in Krakow, Poland, falls within the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

Fr Eugene Sylva, an official for the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, told Vatican Radio it was important for Pope Francis that the international youth gathering fall within the context of this Holy Year.

Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s full interview with Fr. Eugene Sylva:

“What the Holy Father tries to do with every group of people he meets, and now especially the young, is to help each of them have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ,” and “allow themselves to feel forgiven,” he told Vatican Radio’s Lydia O’Kane.

“Let’s face it: Most 16 year-old young people think of themselves as a mess,” said Fr. Sylva, who worked many years ministering to the youth. “One of the great problems our young people face is they no longer can be impelled by beauty, and truth, and goodness.”

“The young people are craving a sense of belonging,” he said. “They want to belong to the Church, and yet we can only offer them this authentic sense of belonging if we help them have an identity as what it means to be Catholic.”

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(Vatican Radio) Volunteers from around the world are in Krakow for World Youth Day. Without their help, there is no way the youth event would be able to be carried out.

But why do they give up so much of their time – some work on the event for over a year – to travel to a country on the other side of the world? For most, because it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Within our team we are really, really international,” said  Viktoria Samp, a volunteer in World Youth Day’s Organizing Committee’s  International Affairs Office.

Listen to the interview by Lydia O’Kane with Viktoria Samp:

“There are a lot of people from all over the world, from Asia, from all countries of Europe, from South America, and also from North America, so we have nearly the whole world here,” she continued.

Paula Mora Diaz, a volunteer in the same office from Colombia, said she is impressed by the devotion of the people in Poland.

“The experience has been really great because Poland is a really, really a [believing] country, and on Sundays…in the churches there are plenty of people,” she said.

Listen to the interview by Lydia O’Kane with Paula Mora Diaz:

I love liturgy, and when the Mass is really, really well-respected in its liturgy, in how it has to be done, and these guys do it really great here…they have really good choirs, they kneel all the time before receiving the Holy Sacrament” – Mora Diaz continued – “there is a lot of respect towards God, and towards the Eucharistic, and towards the Faith itself. This experience has been really enlightening to my faith, and to my personal way to live, and way to behave in a Mass and also when I am praying.”

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(Vatican Radio)  Among the pilgrims attending the World Youth Day events in Krakow were two American friends who went on a tour of the site of the former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau and afterwards spoke to our correspondent Lydia O’Kane about the emotions their visit had aroused in them. 

Lydia spoke first to Hattie Shore and afterwards to her friend Irene Wilson, both of them pilgrims who had come to Poland from their homes in the U.S.

Listen to the interviews with Hattie Shore and Irene Wilson:  

Asked about her impressions of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Hattie described what she called the “eerie” and “unsettling peacefulness” of the site, saying she walked around it “with a pit” in her stomach.  Although not keen beforehand to visit the site of the infamous death camp where nearly a million people died at the hands of the Nazis, Hattie said going to Auschwitz had helped “to bring history alive” for her and had given her a “better understanding” of that dark chapter.

Turning to the World Youth Day gathering, Hattie spoke of how “inspiring” it was to be there with so many other young people from all over the world with a common mission:  “all of us want to deepen our faith.” 

The second American pilgrim to be interviewed by Lydia was Irene Wilson who said she had had a similar reaction to her friend Hattie when going around the site of the Auschwitz camp.  She too mentioned the “eerie silence” of the place and said she was shocked by “how normal it looked” in certain areas.  Like Hattie, Irene said it was “really important” to learn about these horrors.

Asked about the World Youth Day events and her impressions, Irene spoke of the value of so many people of different cultures “all united in wanting to connect” with their faith.  As a practicing Catholic, Irene explained how often this meant “going against the tide”, saying this was “definitely difficult” for young people, mainly because of “a fear” of being rejected or “left out” by their peers.  

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(Vatican Radio) One of the many bishops from around the world going to World Youth Day is the Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown.

Bishop McKeown serves at the Director of the Youth Committee for the Irish Bishops' Conference.

Listen to the interview by Lydia O’Kane with Bishop Donal McKeown:

He said World Youth Day is a chance for the Church to offer hope to young people.

“I think that one of the many great strengths of the Gospel Message: That we can tell people that life does have a meaning; that their lives are beautiful; that they are called to do something wonderful with their lives; that their lives are precious; that there really is a value in doing things, and loving, and knowing the Gospel, and being energized by Jesus,” Bishop McKeown told Vatican Radio.

“I certainly find the Gospel message of hope – of the dignity of the human person, and of the enormous capacity we have through God’s grace to do beautiful things with our lives – inspires a remarkable number of young people; and they are crying out to believe in hope, because politics [and] economics are certainly not offering that hope to our young people,” the Bishop continued.

He said that although the Church has been going through hard times recently in Ireland, young people have not abandoned their faith.

“I am quite buoyant here about the wonderful message of the Gospel that we have to offer about forgiveness, mercy, healing, hope,” Bishop McKeown said.

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Krakow, Poland, Jul 27, 2016 / 03:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Located just southeast of Krakow, the Wieliczka salt mine is famous for many things – most notably its underground chapels, made entirely out of rock salt.

In fact, the chapels are so stunning that they have earned the mine a nickname: the ‘underground salt cathedral.’

Officially opened in the 13th century, the mine is one of the oldest salt mines still in operation and is composed of numerous chambers chiseled out of rock salt, saline lakes, statues and chapels sculpted in salt.

Until now, the main visitor’s route through the mine, called the “Tourist Route,” has been walked by roughly 40 million tourists from around the world, according to the mine’s official website.

In a show of just how deeply the faith is rooted in the Polish people, the mine is also filled with several chapels carved completely out of rock salt, in order to provide miners with a way to practice their faith while underground.

Since miners typically worked under dangerous circumstances in the dark, away from their families, they created the chapels as places where they could pray and celebrate Mass before facing the challenges of the job.

The shrines were chiseled near the miners’ workplaces and at the major and minor shafts where tragic accidents had occurred.

While it isn’t possible to determine exactly how many chapels and shrines once existed in the Wieliczka mine, the most important are shown on the “Pilgrims’ Route,” which, unlike the regular tourist route, allows groups accompanied by a priest to register and celebrate Mass inside one of the chapels.

The most important chapel, which is the largest and contains the most statutes and carvings, is the St. Kinga Chapel, which is located about 330 feet underground.

The large space inside the chapel measures roughly 5,000 square feet of floor space. It is 36 feet tall, and is decorated with bas-relief carvings in rock salt depicting important scenes in Jesus’ life, such as the Nativity, the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.

It also contains carvings of important biblical events like the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents, and of saints. Two giant chandeliers made completely out of salt crystals hang from the ceiling, while an image of St. Kinga, also made entirely of salt crystals, sits behind the main altar.

The sculptures inside the chapel were carved over the course of 70 years, in large part thanks to a man named Erazma Baracza, an art lover and director of the mine.

Inside the main altar are two relics: one of St. Kinga, and one of St. John Paul II, who visited the mine three times during his life. Though he never went as Pope, the young Karol Wojtyla traveled to Wieliczka twice as a teen, and once as a cardinal.

Mass is still celebrated in the chapel every Sunday, as well as on special feast days or holidays. It is also used for special events such as weddings and sacred music concerts, seating about 400 people.

St. Kinga, the chapel’s namesake, lived during the 13th century and was the daughter of Hungarian King Bela IV.

Although she had desired to live a life of celibacy, a young Polish prince named Boleslaw asked for her hand in marriage, and the pious Kinga reluctantly accepted.

When her father asked what she wanted to bring to her husband as a wedding gift, Kinga said she didn’t want any gold or jewels, but preferred to bring something that could serve the people.

With this in mind, she asked her father for salt, since Poland had none. Her father easily agreed, and gave her his most prosperous salt mine.

Kinga and her husband Boleslaw, a devout couple, made a vow of celibacy despite their marriage, and carried out their reign in service to their people. The princess was known to have dedicated much of her time to visiting the poor and caring for lepers.

When Boleslaw died in 1279, the princess sold all of her material possessions and gave the money to the poor before entering the Poor Clares monastery at Sandec, preferring to dedicate her life to prayer rather than continuing with her responsibilities in governing the kingdom.

She spent the rest of her life in prayer, refusing for anyone to refer to her with her royal title “Grand Duchess of Poland.” She died in 1292, and was beatified by Pope Alexander VIII in 1690. In 1695, she was named chief patroness of Poland and Lithuania.

Kinga was canonized by St. Pope John Paul II on June 16, 1999. In gratitude for her canonization, a statue of John Paul II was added to the St. Kinga chapel in the mine alongside a salt crystal sculpture of Our Lady of Lourdes.

The mine also contains chapels dedicated to the Holy Cross, to St. John, to St. Anthony and to St. John Paul II.

In 1076 the Wieliczka Salt Mine was entered into the National Register of Historic Monuments, and in 1978 was included on UNESCO’s First World List of Natural and Cultural Heritages.

 

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