Global catholicism, urban heritage, national politics: the 2016 World Youth Day in Kraków

Abstract

In 1985, in line with ideals of the “International Youth Year” proclaimed by the United Nations, the Roman Catholic Church announced the Christian celebrations dedicated to young people. The celebrations followed the previous year’s closure of the Holy Year of Redemption during which Pope John Paul II donated a large wooden cross – a religious symbol made for the Holy Year – to the young Catholics who gathered at the Vatican. The cross was sent on a “pilgrimage” to different dioceses across Europe. The Vatican gatherings themselves were proclaimed as the beginning of the “World Youth Day” – a new cyclical religious event dedicated to youth. The global dimension of this newly developing Catholic festival was clearly visible right in 1987, when the “Second WYD” was organized outside Europe: in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On a Palm Sunday, closing his trip to Uruguay and Argentina, Pope John Paul II led an open-air mass dedicated to young people who had arrived at the Argentinian capital from different countries and continents. Also, a “pilgriming cross” was brought along and since then it has been known as “The Cross of the World Youth Day” and used during each subsequent event. The WYD itself started to be organized in the summer months, every two or three years, in a different country and continent, and usually, every second WYD is hosted by a European city interchangeably with non-European locations. The current formula of the WYD developed around the mid-1990s and extended the “Day” into an intense one week-long2 religious festival whose dynamics are shaped by densely scheduled activities performed every morning in language-based groups