Akunna Onyiuke '12 - 2011 World Youth Day, Madrid, Spain     

World Youth Day is a week-long event for young people from around the globe to gather and celebrate their Catholic faith.  Initiated in 1985 by Pope John Paul II, the celebration takes place in a different location every three years and attracts hundreds of thousands of youth.  A group of students and teachers from Portsmouth Abbey attended for the first time in 2011.

"I'm in Spain, I can't believe I'm in Spain." This is the sentence that repeatedly went through my mind when I walked off of the six-hour flight from New Jersey to Madrid. The weather was perfect and I couldn't stop looking around at everything, I just had to take in as much of Spain as I possibly could. But there was so much more to see in Spain than just the airport so I was ecstatic to learn that it was only 10 a.m. in Spain and that I had the rest of the day to explore Madrid. 

Exploring Madrid was a rush. The streets were filled with people from all over the world to see the Pope at World Youth Day. Spain was absolutely beautiful.  As I navigated through crowds of people, I noticed how gorgeous the buildings were with the beautiful brown stones used to build them and the beautiful balconies. Even the way the foods at the restaurants were made was beautiful. I could tell the appearance of the food was important and, best of all, it tasted as good as it looked. 

After our day exploring Madrid, the group went to Mass in the middle of the city of Madrid where all the people who came for WYD also attended. The next day we went on a day trip to a town called Segovia. It was absolutely breathtaking. The city looked so old but was well preserved. The cathedral was the most mind-boggling building in the town. The architecture was something out of a fairytale, and our World Youth Day group even was able to Mass in the cathedral.  During that same week, our group went to the town of Toledo, which was equally, if not more, beautiful than Segovia. The architecture was beautiful and the cathedral, in which we also went to Mass, was almost heavenly. Parts of it were decked out in gold and marble. There was even a room with the portraits of every single Pope in history.  

Seeing the different cities in Segovia was amazing, but the most exciting part of  the trip was when everyone who had come to Spain for WYD all gathered in a park in Madrid to see the Pope  for the first time. I don't think I have ever seen more people in one place in my 17 years of life. There were  hundreds of flags waving and the Spain natives chanted, "Esta es el juventud de papa" (translation: "This is the youth of the Pope."). When the Pope arrived in his Popemobile, the screams were overwhelming. A few days later, on the official WYD, we went on a pilgrimage with what seemed like all of Spain and arrived at a huge field where we camped out. There, the Pope said a Mass and then announced that the next WYD would be in Brazil.  The next day, though I was sad to say goodbye to Spain, I was ecstatic to see Fatima, Portugal.

When I arrived in Fatima, I could immediately sense a very holy and sacred feeling come over me. This was the town in which the blessed Mary, mother of God, appeared multiple times to the three children. This feeling increased tenfold when the group went to the sight of the apparitions where there was a midnight vigil procession to the shrine of Mary. We also went to the church that was built near the shrine and saw the graves of the three children, Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco. Seeing the shrine and having this feeling of a whole new devotion to Mary was a more-than perfect end to the trip of a lifetime.

Going to Spain and Portugal opened my eyes to a whole new part of the world that I had never seen. It was amazing to meet other kids from different parts of the world who had the same devotion to the Catholic faith that I have. Seeing the Pope  and the beautiful country of Spain all in one was the opportunity of a lifetime. Going to Portugal brought out in me a whole new devotion to the Blessed Mother, and that is the best thing I could have ever asked to take away from the whole trip. I want to thank Ms. Thomas (Portsmouth Abbey's director of Christian Community Service, who led the trip), Hannah (Niles '13), Sean (Buckley '12), James (McField '12), and Courtney (Macomber '12) for being the best group ever.  I also want to thank the Manto de Guadalupe group, and, most of all, I want to thank my sponsor, without whom this trip would have never been possible; I will never ever forget what you have done for me. I took so much away from my WYD trip; it is one I will certainly never forget.