MADRID (EWTN News) — A week ago, Samantha Betor and Rosali Mendiz didn’t know each other. Now the teenage pair from Massachusetts are best friends, united in their Catholic faith, thanks to World Youth Day 2011.

“Oh my goodness. It’s been indescribable,” 17-year-old Mendiz, from Westfield, Mass., told EWTN News at the closing Mass at Cuarto Vientos airbase on Aug. 21.

“Just getting to see the Pope and stuff like that — I would never have thought in a million years I’d get this opportunity.” 

The two girls come from different parts of their state, but they were both part of a Diocese of Springfield, Mass., pilgrimage to World Youth Day in Madrid.

That changed both of their lives.

When massive rioting and looting broke out this month across London, the British media quickly diagnosed the criminal behavior as the legacy of poor economic conditions and political unrest.
However, not everyone concurs with that analysis. A handful of England watchers proposed that the lawlessness on their streets was rather the symptom of a moral collapse across the nation.
Among those subscribing to this view, is veteran British Catholic journalist, blogger and broadcaster Joanna Bogle. Bogle was interviewed by email from her home in London. Her comments capture her grim assessment of the steady decline of moral and family values in England and its damaging effects on the nation’s...READ MORE

People, people and more people — that is all I have seen for 24 hours. Group Alabama just returned to our hotel after one of the most incredible experiences I have ever been through.

First, we walked and walked in streets filled with people, only to arrive at the field where the closing Mass took place around noon Madrid time yesterday.

As far as the eye could see, people were walking, and then settling down into the dust to wait for the Holy Father. We were very fortunate to get there as early as we did because we got a good spot up against a fence.

For the next eight hours, we fought the lines for water and wished it would rain. It was so hot!

Little did we know our prayers would...READ MORE

Dear young people,

In this celebration of the Eucharist, we have reached the high point of this World Youth Day. Seeing you here, gathered in such great numbers from all parts of the world, fills my heart with joy. I think of the special love with which Jesus is looking upon you. Yes, the Lord loves you and calls you his friends (John 15:15).

He goes out to meet you, and he wants to accompany you on your journey, to open the door to a life of fulfilment and to give you a share in his own closeness to the Father. For our part, we have come to know the immensity of his love, and we want to respond generously to his love by sharing with others the joy we have received.

Certainly, there...READ MORE

Dear young friends,

I greet all of you, especially the young people who have asked me their questions, and I thank them for the sincerity with which they set forth their concerns, that express the longing which all of you have to achieve something great in life, something which can bring you fulfilment and happiness.

How can a young person be true to the faith and yet continue to aspire to high ideals in today’s society? In the Gospel we have just heard, Jesus gives us an answer to this urgent question: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love” (John 15:9).

Yes, dear friends, God loves us. This is the great truth of our life; it is what makes everything else...READ MORE

Your Eminence,
Dear brother bishops,
Dear priests and religious of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God,
Distinguished authorities,
Dear young people, family members and volunteers,

I thank you most sincerely for your kind greeting and heartfelt welcome.

This evening, just before the prayer vigil with the young people from throughout the world gathered in Madrid for this World Youth Day, we have this chance to spend time together as a way of showing the Pope’s closeness and esteem for each of you, for your families and for all those who help and care for you in this Foundation of St. Joseph’s Institute.

Youth, as I have said more than once, is the age when life discloses itself to us...READ MORE

Motherless Mothering - Sarah, Fumbling Toward Grace

The Philosophy of Sex - Dennis Buonafede, The Integrated Catholic Life™

If Christ is the Rock, can Peter also be the Rock? - Fr. Ryan Erlenbush, The New Theological Movement

Book Review: The Bible Made Impossible - Brent Stubbs, Almost Not Catholic

The Value of a Woman - Kevin Lowry, A Grateful Convert

Our Collective Wisdom: Responding Properly - Dr. Jeff Mirus, CatholicCulture.org

Echoes of an Unsung Lullaby - JC Sanders, VirtuousPla.net

Non-Human People - Foxfier, The American Catholic

Getting In Character - Kevin O’Brien, Theater of the Word Incorporated

Birth Control Raises Deadly Clot Risk to 1,700% for Women - Jeremy Kryn,...READ MORE

 
Your Eminence, the archbishop of Madrid,


Dear brother bishops,


Dear priests and religious,


Dear rectors and formators,


Dear seminarians,


Dear friends,



I am very pleased to celebrate holy Mass with you who aspire to be Christ’s priests for the service of the Church and of man, and I thank you for the kind words with which you welcomed me.

Today, this holy cathedral church of Santa María La Real de la Almudena is like a great Upper Room, where the Lord greatly desires to celebrate the Passover with you who wish one day to preside in his name at the mysteries of salvation. Looking at you, I again see proof of how Christ continues to call young disciples and to make them his...READ MORE