We welcome the following guest post from Leticia Velasquez, co-founder of Keep Infants with Downs Syndrome. Pope Benedict XVI reaches to kiss a disabled child at World Youth Day. Among the groups honored by an audience with the Holy Father during World Youth Day, was a group of sick and disabled youth from St Joseph’s Hospital. Like the seminarians, university professors, and women religious, t... More

UPDATE: La Voz De Barcelona has more photos of the fire damage. Here’s one: ORIGINAL POST: I’ve begun to follow Catholic news in Spain more closely, because I hope to attend World Youth Day in Madrid this August and I want to know as much about the Catholic culture there as possible. One of the most disturbing trends I have noticed is how frequently churches and other holy places ther... More

This video is done for a group organizing a pilgrimage to WYD: I’m hoping the WYD organizers get me some press credentials soon so I can book my tickets! ... More

Carol Glatz of CNS News reports: Pope Benedict XVI has urged young people not to abandon their faith in God because of the “attacks of evil” within the Church. In a foreword to a new catechism edited specifically for young people, he said: “Carry intact the fire of your love in this Church every time that men have obscured her face.” The new Youth Catechism, also called “YouCat”, will... More

What better way to spend a Friday evening than reading some spiritual nourishment from our Shepherd-in-Chief? MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI FOR THE TWENTY-SIXTH WORLD YOUTH DAY (2011) I often think back on the World Youth Day held in Sydney in 2008. There we had an experience of a great festival of faith in which the Spirit of God was actively at work, building deep communion among ... More