Nolan Reynolds of Our Lady of Mercy Church in Hicksville, Diana Padilla of the diocesan youth ministry and young adult apostolate and William Ludewig of St. Martha’s Church in Uniondale display the diocesan World Youth Day banner as they wait for the start of the World Youth Day Opening Mass July 15. TLIC photo/Mary Gorry

Sydney, Australia — Arriving here a day before the official start of World Youth Day, the Rockville Centre Diocese contingent spent their free day getting to know the city they’ll call home for the next week, making new friends from around the world and building excitement for the upcoming international Catholic celebration.

The group of more than 100 arrived in Sydney late July 13 after losing a day crossing the international date line from Hawaii, and celebrated Mass in their hotel with a group from Boston that evening. July 14 was spent broken up into smaller groups to explore the sights and sounds of Sydney before gathering together for a dinner cruise around Darling Harbour with other American pilgrims.

“Pilgrimage, throughout history, is a whole process,” said Father Ed Sheridan of St. Catherine of Sienna Church in Franklin Square during his homily Sunday night. “It’s a journey of conversion, of intimacy with God. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to nurture, to allow the word of God and your life in Christ to grow.

We need not to just be a flash in the pan,” he emphasized, “to come to this experience of World Youth Day, traveling halfway around the world, and then leaving here and leaving this experience here. “That,” said, alluding to the day’s Gospel reading, “is allowing the seeds to be planted so the birds eat it up”

“You have to take this experience, each of us pilgrims, we need to pray and help lead others and support one another.”

“Allow the Holy Spirit to take root in you,” he said, “so that you may also be changed and you might live life in Christ to the full.”

Father Sheridan urged the pilgrims to remember the members of their youth groups back home on Long Island, and to remember “the sacrifices of our parents and our parishioners and of our dioceses who helped us to come here.”

Joe Moncada, 17, of St. Boniface Church in Elmont noted that his favorite part of his free day was meeting the many pilgrims arriving for World Youth Day. “I got to meet a whole bunch of cool groups today,” he said. “I met a group from South New Guinea, Illinois, an Australian group. There was a mother and a daughter who were American, but they live in Okinawa, Japan. I thought it was cool meeting all the other people that are here for World Youth Day just walking around.”

“I like getting to see all the different cultures,” agreed Erin MacBride, 17, of Curé of Ars Church in Merrick. “Their accents are really cool.”

“It was fun to walk through things that Australians do every day,” added Kelly Conklin, 17, also of Curé of Ars, who spent the day at the Wildlife World and aquarium, “and seeing their native animals.”

“I was really excited to see the kangaroos,” noted fellow parishioner Courtney Hartnett, 16.

“The wallabies were adorable,” said Kelly.
The group from Holy Spirit Church in New Hyde Park used their day to climb across the span of Sydney Harbour Bridge. “It was amazing,” noted Michelle Mascolo, 25. “It was very surreal. It didn’t feel like we were up there, but we were. We couldn’t have picked a better day for it (weatherwise).”

“I was scared,” added her sister, Annemarie Mascolo, 23. “My knees were shaking, but the view was beautiful.”

An evening dinner cruise around Darling Harbour with groups from other dioceses from the United States afforded views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the iconic Sydney Opera House, while inside the vessel dinner quickly turned into an open mic night of uplifting hymns and Christian rap, an early start to the World Youth Day celebration.
“It was a nice opportunity to get together with other youths from the tri-state area,” said Jeanne Smith, 23, of Our Lady of Mercy Church in Hicksville, “and it was a great introduction of what’s to come for World Youth Day.”

For a slideshow of this event please click here