{UAH} World Youth Day : Estimated 3 million to sleep at Copacabana Beach!

The long awaited night vigil of prayer in Rio's Copacabana Beach  has been opened by the Pope.

Young pilgrims began arriving early in the day , and hundreds of thousands had already gathered

by midday. By the time the Pope arrived in the evening close to 3 million youths had already 

camped there to follow the very highly organized festivities that include prayer, preaching, music, etc

and which will go on throughout the night until tomorrow Sunday when the great High Mass will be sung by

the Pope surrounded by thousands of ecclesiatics and an estimated 3 million-plus congregation.

On arrival at the venue this evening, the Pope was welcomed by the many cardinals present, among them

Cardinal Vingt-Trois of Paris and Cardinal Laurent Pasinya Monsengwo of Kinshasa, who both count among those

cardinals who have done wonders in Rio. As usual the popemobile was mobbed throughout its route from his

residence to Copacabana as millions madly cheered the Holy Father whose presence and message have very

strongly marked the entire Latin American continent!

The festivities began with prayer followed by an animated construction of a symbolical church which was an occasion to

show how the youth are committed to a missionary zeal of evengelizing. Then an ex-delinquent was given an opportunity

to narrate his past and how religion helped to reconvert him to a very sensible individual, and a leader in society!

He thanked the Pope for having helped to turn all youths present into one unique church. Other youths who narrated their 

tormented past included a marginal who through the discovery of the sense of prayer rose to become a priest; and a black

girl who finally found Christ after having led for several years a life based on magic rituals and superstition!

Highly entertaining music was played and all singers were wildly cheered!

There were very loud cheers and applauses when the Pope stood to deliver his sermon in which he advised the youth and

the entire congregation to let Christ penetrate very deep in all souls, let's speak to Him openly and let's let Him grow inside us

as a seed that will bear good fruit, and that with Him there is no need to fear anything or to get lost.

The Pope's words were received with rousing cheers from the three million people present at the Beach. 

Then finally there was a short moment of adoration of the Holy Sacrament as it was brought in a very large ostensory which was

finally lifted and monstrated to the millions present, with many African delegations clapping in an ostensible respect!

Indeed, Africans are present and very strongly visible, and a French televiewer even marked the presence of the Ugandan

group marching majestically in the streets of Rio with the national flag. 

Before coming to Copacabana Beach, the Pope had earlier celebrated Mass in the Rio Cathedral and 1000 bishops, thousands

of priests, brothers, sisters and seminarists from the whole world were present. In a touching sermon he advised the priests as

well as the religious to spearhead evangelization by moving everywhere to look for souls. He also rejected abortion. And he donated

a richly ornamented chalice to the cathedral.

To and from the cathedral the Pope was cheered by massive crowds. There are indeed very many pilgrims in Rio where even the

suffering nations have sent sizeable delegations, for example Lebanon with 400 and Irak with 180. In any case practically every

nation on the globe is being represented. Moslem-majority Senegal sent there 20 and Burkina Fasso 10. Not bad!

Our youths will enjoy a lovely cheerful sleep in Copacabana where the weaher is now excellent. But better arrangements had

already been made at Guaratiba where a lot of excellent logistics had already been set to contain over four million people, but it

was abandoned due to rains that flooded the entire area. The Guaratiba space measuring 1220m long and 1120m wide was indeed the real equivalent of the total areas covered by pilgrims at Namugongo ( shrine and surroundings included ), And at the recent Namugongo the Ugandan police authorities were just proved correct and accurate when they estimated the number of 

pilgrims present for the 3rd June 2013 celebration to be 3 million. They were right! Rio de Janerio now just reminds Namugongo in many ways! And I'm sure one day Pope Francis will answer "yes" to the Ugandan Episcopal Conference invitation to visit the

country, and at Namugongo he will definitely live another Copacabana after having rediscovered Rio in Kampala, etc..!

Dr G.H. Kkolokolo  ( Paris / France )