NORTHFIELD (August 2, 2005) – Bishop Joseph A. Galante will celebrate a special ‘Send Off’ Mass at 2 p.m., Aug. 7 at St. Bernadette Church, Northfield, for those leaving for World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne, Germany.
The Mass will be attended by more than 100 youth, family members and chaperones from Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Salem and Gloucester counties who are also making the trip. World Youth Day begins in Germany on Aug. 16 and ends on Sunday, Aug. 21 with a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI.
A total of 100 youth and adult chaperones will leave Philadelphia International Airport on Aug. 9, according to Father Tom Barcellona, Executive Director of Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Camden. Some of those traveling had been looking forward to the trip since they attended the last World Youth Day in Toronto in July 2002 with Pope John Paul II, he said. Pope John Paul II inaugurated World Youth Day in 1986 as a way to bring young people from all over the world together. The 2005 gathering will be the 20th year of this world-wide youth encounter.
The group will take a flight from Philadelphia to London, with the diocesan tour beginning on Aug. 9. The itinerary includes all World Youth Day events, as well as visits to the Marian shrines at Fatima, Portugal and Lourdes, France and to Oberammergau, Germany, site of a world-famous passion play.