Sept. 28, 2016

By Leagon Carlin
Seminarian, Diocese of Ogdensburg

The Universal Church is totally alive!

As I travelled to Krakow, Poland with a group of 10 other pilgrims for the recent World Youth Day, I became increasingly aware of the energy, vigor and strength of the young Church.

Experiencing the excitement of the crowds, the joy and unsurmountable love shown in the people, it really dispels the myth of a “dying Church”.

Poland, a country with a startling Catholic majority, was really the greatest possible backdrop for my first World Youth Day. As a seminarian, with a strong devotion to the life and writings of Pope Saint John Paul II, to be in his home country during this Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy had an amazing impact on my vocational discernment.

This man, who instituted Divine Mercy Sunday, had an incomparable devotion to the Mercy of God, and who even died on the eve of Divine Mercy, worked tirelessly throughout his priesthood, episcopate and pontificate to show the world what it truly meant to be alive and to respect the dignity of the person.

Now, decades later, this foundation of Mercy and Dignity was fully present in the atmosphere in Krakow, in the words of our Holy Father Francis, and in the disposition of my fellow pilgrims.

The spirit of my peers was undeniable as we walked the streets of the city each day amidst chants and cheers, singing, dancing, laughter and smiles.

The world continually tries to convince the younger generation that we don't need God, that rules don't need to apply to us, that the Church is out of touch.

In Krakow that week, it was never more evident how wrong that truly is. The Church is ever ancient, and ever new! It has weathered the storms and empires of the centuries and stands now, strong against the oncoming tides of Secularism, Cultural Apathy and Relativism.

Christ is always with us, constantly guiding and aiding us, and I am hopeful that with the examples which surrounded me at this 2016 World Youth Day, with the witness of the great Polish Saints like St. Faustina, St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. John Paul the Great, and with the guidance and fire of the Holy Spirit, the world will see just how alive the Church is when led by its youth. Our Lady of Czestochowa, Pray for Us!