There’s something about the music of WYD2002 that really transports me back to that week. Events such as the Welcoming Ceremony, the Way of the Cross, the Vigil and the Closing Mass, would not have been the same, I believe, had it not been for the music. Not that the music is solely responsible for ...read more

Days before World Youth Day 2002’s Way of the Cross, the event’s director, Father Robert Gendreau, was concerned that there was not a lot of media interest in this grand-scale Stations of the Cross. Stretching along one of Toronto’s busiest avenues with hundreds of people involved, and six months in the making, this was no ...read more

Retrospect. Hindsight. Looking back. We’re often asked how we might redo history, knowing what we know now. What would I change about the summer of 2002? Nothing. World Youth Day 2002 provided me with one my first jobs… I was working in the Program Department helping to organize the volunteers and logistics of festival stages ...read more

The other day I decided to unearth the red and beige bag that lays at the bottom of my closet. The occasion was the fifth anniversary of Toronto’s World Youth Day. The bag: the official Toronto WYD backpack. The contents: worn pamphlets, tattered maps, and torn flyers I enthusiastically collected between July 23rd and July ...read more

This week, July 23rd to July 28th, marks the 5th anniversary of Toronto’s World Youth Day. Salt + Light Television is marking the occasion with a whole slate of special programming. Click HERE to see what we have scheduled. Throughout this week we’ll also be posting on the blog some of the staff’s experiences at ...read more

I signed up for WYD 02 rather late in the game. Wouldn’t it be equivalent watching the coverage from afar? And, frankly, due to some evangelical protestant leanings I held at the time, all the attention on the Pope made me uncomfortable. Still, realizing the opportunity may only come once, I squeezed into the lone ...read more

I was recently discussing the word ‘blood’ and the use of the verb ‘to bleed’ with a colleague.  By no means was it a very indepth, academic discussion, but it had me thinking about the word ‘blood.’ For many people the word ‘blood’ makes their, I wouldn’t say blood curdle, but I would say it ...read more

A year from today — July 15th — thousands will begin the World Youth Day 2008 experience in Australia. Two years have already quickly zipped by, and before you know it, Salt + Light will be providing reports to you from Sydney during the non-stop faith-filled week of World Youth Day activities! Registrations are going ...read more

Checking our Salt + Light Catholic Focus programming calendar: Coming up on the Wednesday, July 11th edition of Catholic Focus, Mary Rose Bacani looks at the world of blogs in ‘Once Upon a Blog.’ You can read Mary Rose’s thoughts on her program, which originally aired in March, by clicking here. Upcoming Catholic Focuses also ...read more

I wish all of you, especially those most in need, the possibility of taking a little vacation to reinvigorate your physical and spiritual energies and recover a salutary contact with nature. Those words from Pope Benedict XVI during his Sunday Angelus as he begins three weeks of vacation today. From July 9th to 27th, the ...read more