Discovering the Way with St. John Paul II

Father Neil Xavier O'Donoghue was in Guam several times, and he made the news.  You can find the news report in the Irish Catholic:

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Dr Neil Xavier O'Donoghue meeting Pope Francis.

Chai Brady speaks to a renowned Catholic academic about his life and Faith

 “Do not be afraid to be holy” was then Pope John Paul II’s message to pilgrims during World Youth Day in 1989, and that struck a chord with a young man soon to enter seminary.

Dr Neil Xavier O’Donoghue, now a lecturer of Systematic Theology in St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, was “impressed” by what St John Paul II said.

“That was his refrain there, and to see that Christianity was an option to me, I see that a vocation is a vocation to Christianity not to the priesthood per say. The main vocation is to Holiness, within that you have to discern what it is, and I discerned that it was a vocation to the priesthood,” he said.

However, this wasn’t the only thing that helped him on his Faith journey.

Serious

Growing up in Ballincollig, Co. Cork, the eldest of two brothers and a sister, Dr Neil became more serious about his Faith after his teenage years.

“I suppose it was at the World Youth Day in Santiago Del Compostela, which was just after my Leaving Cert before starting in UCC. During that year I was discerning and I saw the vocation more clearly at the end of that year,” he said.

He joined the Neocatechumenal Way, a charism in the Church dedicated to Christian formation. After that pilgrimage in Spain with the group’s youth community and the then Pope’s message, he had a vocational meeting.

His US adventure began when he was chosen at random to go to New Jersey. “I was 18 at the time, it was an adventure it was no problem. At the time I didn’t know which side of the US New Jersey was on, but I was up for it,” he said.

Dr Neil spent 10 years as a seminarian in the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Newark. Five of those years were spent as a missionary in Atlanta, Miami and Washington DC.

Seminarians

It was in 2013 that Cardinal Brady asked his bishop in the US, Archbishop John Myers at the time, to borrow him to help establish the new Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Dundalk and “get it off the ground”. He had already taught seminarians in the US for 11 years and went on to spend five years teaching seminarians in Dundalk.

Archbishop Myers agreed and it was back home for Dr Neil who served there as Vice Rector of the seminary of the Archdiocese of Armagh and as a curate in a number of parishes in Dundalk and south Armagh.

Discussing the differences between working as a priest in Ireland and the US he said that ultimately there was very few.

“People are more or less the same on one level, on another level I think the Church is a bit different in the States because it is bigger so you have more room for variety whereas here you have a one size fits all reality. In the States different parishes have a difference emphasis, they have that advantage over us I suppose,” he said.

Dr Neil then decided to move into academics after a discussion with his archbishop, Cardinal Joseph Tobin CSsR of Newark.

He said: “I’m settling into the job here I’ve written a lot about the Church in early Ireland, about the way the Eucharist was celebrated. My doctorate was in the Eucharist in pre-Norman Ireland and so I’ve done some work on that and on liturgical renewal in general.”

Teaching systematic theology, he says the ultimate question within students is whether the Good News is real.

“That’s the ultimate question, is all this real? That is the question that each students has to answer for themselves above and beyond the actual mechanics of getting a degree in theology,” he said.

Dr Neil also writes a monthly column for the Messenger of St Anthony where he focuses on the theology of the Pope.

Speaking about the topic he found most interesting related to his writings on the Pope he said: “I suppose it would be his emphasis on forgiveness which would be the most important one with Pope Francis, I suppose the power of Confession is a big deal with him.

He also does some blogging on praytellblog.com, which is sponsored by the Benedictine Abbey of Collegeville and is the author of several books.

Congratulations to Jose Santos

Once again, a former RMS seminarian from Guam have been ordained into the priesthood. Father Jose Santos who worked in the Asan parish for a long time has been ordained a priest in Mexico.  Some of the brothers in the Asan community were present during his ordination.  Father Jose could have been ordained a priest in Guam for Guam, but this turns out to be another loss for Guam.  Congratulations to Father Jose Santos.  

  

The Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report

The following article was written by Father Peter M.J. Stravinskas in These Stone Walls, which you can find here.

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The Pennsylvania grand jury report is misleading and had an agenda. One observer noted, “This report should not have been on a news channel, but on the History Channel.”

Some readers found my article, “PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro in ‘The Reckoning’” to be explosive. If true, it deals with a subject that needs to be exploded instead of exploited. The truth is that you have not been told the truth in that now infamous Pennsylvania grand jury report. At the end of my article I suggested some further reading. I also promised that this week on These Stone Walls a prestigious guest will offer the most compelling challenge of all to the distortions you and your Church have been subjected to.

It is a great honor this week to present this analysis by Father Peter M.J. Stravinskas, one of America’s foremost theologians and Catholic editors. Father Stravinskas presents a riveting and highly revealing analysis of the Pennsylvania report conducted by the Philadelphia law firm of Roca Rothberger Christie, LLP. His summary is the most concise and compelling of all the commentary I have read in these troubled days of persecution.

Father Peter M.J. Stravinskas is the founder of The Catholic Answer and is currently Publisher and Editor of the superb bimonthly journal, The Catholic Response. He earned a B.A. in Classical Languages, Masters degrees in both School Administration and Biblical Theology, a Doctor of Philosophy in School Administration from Fordham University, and both a Licentiate and Doctor of Sacred Theology from the Marianum in Rome and the Marian Institute of the University of Dayton.

I am so pleased to present this guest post by Father Stravinskas. His conclusion is that we must not be silent in the face of persecution. Please share this post with others.

DUC IN ALTUM: PUT OUT INTO THE DEEP

On August 14, the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, released the findings of a grand jury investigation into cases of alleged sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy in six dioceses of the Commonwealth (the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was not included since it had undergone a similar review earlier). It was the report “heard ‘round the world.” Most people do not realize that a grand jury report is just that – a report, which provides details of allegations and accusations, which may or may not be true, which may or may not be prosecutable. In addition to the sensationalistic and prurient language of the report, it was released by Shapiro in such a way as to suggest that these accusations were all verifiable crimes and that they were current events. As one commentator put it, this report should not have been on a news channel but on the history channel.

At the time of the report’s release, in various articles and in interviews, I asked why the dioceses of Pennsylvania had not gotten out ahead of its formal presentation (since they knew it was coming and likewise knew that it would lack balance and accuracy). Somewhat belatedly, but thankfully, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia contracted the services of the law firm Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP to provide a professional analysis of the report. Below you will find my redaction of that analysis (shortened for space considerations), but providing its principal findings. After reading that, I would invite you to move down to some concerns and suggestions I offer for the Church in the United States (and beyond) to consider about how to proceed with further reform (yes, much reform has already occurred – although you would never know that from the way the issue is handled by the secular media).

Statistical Analysis of Information Contained in the
August 14, 2018, Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report

In order to properly understand the import of the Grand Jury Report (the “Report”) and what the Report says about the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, it is necessary to understand its allegations in the proper factual context. To help supply this context, this document provides a statistical analysis of the Report and provides relevant information about other studies of child sexual abuse.

At the outset, it is important to note that the Report, while lengthy, is frequently vague and lacking in detail. For purposes of this statistical analysis, this document focuses on factual information related to 680 separate allegations of abuse over an 84-year period (1934 to the present). The details surrounding the remaining victims identified in the Report are so deficient (including critical facts like dates of the alleged abuse) that they could not be included in this analysis. In addition, in light of due process concerns acknowledged by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the Report was released in redacted form.

The following facts are significant:

• The Report has not identified any priests with substantiated claims of sexual abuse of minors who are still in active ministry. While the status of several priests named in the Report remains unknown, based on follow-up reports from various dioceses, we have only been able to identify three priests accused of sexual abuse in the report who remain in ministry. These three priests are from the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and they are listed by the Diocese as people who have been accused of sexual abuse, but the allegations were not substantiated.
• Of the 680 alleged victims whose claims were tied to specific years, only 23 claim they were abused after the USCCB adopted the Charter for the Protection Children and Young People in 2002 (the “Charter”).
• The average year each alleged incident of abuse in the Report ended was 1979. Stated differently, the average incident of abuse alleged in the Report is now 39 years old.
• Much of the information in the Report has been publicly known for years.
• Of the 301 priests identified in the report as having allegedly sexually abused a minor, 140 are now deceased.
• Many of the alleged incidents of abuse occurred many decades ago. For instance, the Report references a victim alleging he was abused in the 1930s. The victim first reported the alleged abuse in 2008 when the victim was 80 years old. The accused priest was born in 1892 (the year Grover Cleveland was elected President) and was ordained in 1922. The priest was long deceased when the allegations against him were first reported.
• It is important to note that the Report includes all allegations of abuse the government found in the course of its two-year investigation, including many allegations that the Report recognized as not credible. While the media has generally claimed that all of the allegations in the Report were proven true, other reports of child abuse or child sexual abuse regularly report that only a subset of allegations are found to be substantiated:
• The 2004 John Jay report, which covered a similar time frame as the Report (1950-2002), stated that out of 10,667 alleged incidents of sexual abuse of youths, only 4,570 (less than half) were deemed substantiated.
• The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services only substantiated 10% of the 44,000 statewide reports of child abuse received in 2016. Of the 2,602 reports of child abuse in child care settings, only 7% were substantiated.
• In 2017, state authorities substantiated only 18 of the 280 (6.4%) reports of abuse filed against Philadelphia school employees.
• While the Attorney General acknowledged that child sexual abuse is a broad societal problem (expressly including schools, physicians’ offices, and public officials), and claiming an interest in eradicating child sexual abuse throughout society, Shapiro did not ask all victims of abuse to come forward. Instead, he only encouraged those who had been sexually abused by a Catholic priest to contact the “Clergy Abuse Hotline” his office has established.
• This myopic focus on abuse within the Catholic Church stands in the face of the available data, which shows overwhelmingly that the sexual abuse of minors is a much bigger problem outside the Church. This is true within Pennsylvania and nationally.

PENNSYLVANIA COMPARISONS:

• Since 2002, more than 600 school teachers in non-Catholic schools in Pennsylvania have been disciplined in connection with abuse or otherwise inappropriate behavior with children. This includes more than 50 school teachers in 2018 alone.
• In 2016, the year the Grand Jury began its investigation, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services identified 3,078 substantiated allegations of sexual abuse during the calendar year. This is more than three times the number of total allegations against the Catholic Church (substantiated and unsubstantiated) identified by the Grand Jury over an eighty-year time span.
• The same year, Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offenders Assessment Board received 1,195 founded or indicated reports on 940 perpetrators, an 11.5% increase over 2015.

NATIONAL COMPARISONS:

• What is true in Pennsylvania is also true on a national level. Evidence shows that sexual abuse of minors is a huge epidemic that touches every major institution in society. Further, by all accounts, few institutions have done as much as the Catholic Church to learn from past failures and take steps to prevent abuse going forward.
• Nationally, 24.7% of women and 16% of men experienced sexual abuse during their childhood.
• 33% of those who sexually abuse minors are the victim’s parents; 58% are an acquaintance of the victim; 4% are strangers.
• Over twenty years, at least 368 gymnasts accused their USA Gymnastics coaches of sexual assault. Two former USA Gymnastics officials admitted under oath that the organization “routinely dismissed sexual abuse allegations as hearsay unless they came directly from a victim or victim’s parent.” USA Gymnastics “acknowledged in court records that it seldom, if ever, forwarded allegations of child abuse to police or child protective services without being asked.”
• Between 1971 and 1990, 1,151 Boy Scouts reported being sexually abused by their leaders. Over the same time-span, 416 Scout leaders were either arrested or banned from Scouting for sexual abuse of Scouts. Experts believe that the real number of abusers and victims was probably several times higher.
• Insurance companies receive around 260 reports per year of sexual abuse of a minor in U.S. Protestant churches. This annual number is more than the total accusations against Catholic clergy since 2005.
• Nearly one in ten public school students suffers sexual harassment, rape, or sexual abuse at the hands of a public school teacher.
• 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a public school employee from 1991 to 2000. By contrast, the first John Jay study found 10,677 allegations of abuse against priests and deacons over a much longer time-frame, 1950 to 2002. Based on these numbers, the study’s author said that “the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.”
• By way of contrast, in 2017 the USCCB’s independent auditor found only 24 allegations that current minors were sexually abused, only six of which were substantiated by the close of the audit cycle.

Having an objective review of that most damaging grand jury report, we should be able to come to some conclusions and a plan of action.

While we must condemn any sexual abuse of vulnerable people by clergy (or anyone else), a few points need to be made. First, since 2002, it is fair to say that the safest place for a child to be is in any Catholic institution – and the statistics bear this out. In this regard, see the excellent article published on December 2nd by The Media Report which notes, among other statistics, that in less than three months, the Chicago Public Schools office has received over 600 allegations of sexual abuse. Now, in fairness, an allegation is just that. However, even if we take half that number, we are left with a monthly average of 100 abuse allegations in just a single public school system (see “Sex Abuse in Chicago Schools”).

Indeed, the Church could offer valuable counsel to all kinds of organizations on how to protect minors from sexual predators. Second, it is patently unfair to accuse Church officials of “coverup” due to confidentiality agreements. In point of fact, when an out-of-court settlement is reached, a confidentiality agreement is standard procedure. Readers of TCR will recall that I have consistently opposed out-of-court settlements for a variety of reasons, however, if that route is taken by a victim’s legal team, then one should not balk at it years later.

Presently, attention is focused on episcopal accountability. In 2002, when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops promulgated the so-called “Dallas Charter,” a notable absence
from the Charter’s sanctions was the bishop. That lacuna is now being addressed, both in terms of episcopal sinful and criminal activity and episcopal nonfeasance (that is, failure to deal with
abuse problems according to the norms of both civil and canon law).

Suggestions (and demands!) have come from all quarters. Some of these have been very thoughtful and helpful. Some have been well-intentioned but misguided. Some who have advanced remedies have a distinctly anti-clerical and even anti-Catholic bias; they are not reformers but revolutionaries, out for red meat. We need to remember that revolutions never end well. Anger and a hidden agenda spell doom for any possible good that could emerge.

“Off with all their heads!” is neither human nor Christian. That mentality has caused not a few innocent priests to be unfairly tried in the court of public opinion since 2002; regrettably, very few bishops have come to their defense out of fear of bad press. Now, some of those same people are coming after the bishops, predictably. One of the “reforms” put forward is that oversight of accusations of clerical abuse (whether by priests or bishops) be handed over to civil authorities. Is this something we really want? Let’s consider the prospects for justice.

– As you should have seen from the very detailed analysis of the Pennsylvania grand jury report above, the goal was not justice; slander, scandal and defamation were. Interestingly, that same Attorney General has now shown his hand completely by filing a challenge to President Trump’s final religious exemption rules, which guarantee freedom of conscience. Shapiro also continues his legal harassment of the Little Sisters of the Poor.

– In every jurisdiction where the statute of limitations has been rolled back, the only entity to come under the gun has been the Catholic Church. Jurisprudence has valued the statute of limitations for centuries for very good reasons. If, however, it is revoked or set aside for a period of time, why is that window of opportunity for litigation not extended to all potential institutions harboring abusers, starting with the public schools?

– The unbelievably biased procedures against Cardinal George Pell in Australia, violative of all principles of fairness and transparency, give new meaning to “kangaroo court.” Such judicial behavior has not been limited to “the Land down Under”; we have had numerous examples of it here in the United States. As Arthur Schlesinger asserted, “Anti-Catholicism is the deepest-held bias in the history of the American people.”

If society-at-large and legislative bodies, along with judiciaries, were truly concerned with the welfare of minors, their laser would not be exclusively focused on the Catholic Church. The real goal, of course, is to discredit the Church’s moral standing since hers is nearly the only voice raised in the culture wars – speaking out in opposition to abortion, same-sex unions, euthanasia, and further drifts into secularization.

A well-regarded motto urges: “Ecclesia semper reformanda” (The Church is always in need of reform). Reform, not revolution. Luther’s initial challenges were for reform; he and his movement descended into the realm of revolution, throwing out the baby with the bath water. Genuine reform must be grounded in a true love for the Church and in rational proposals that take all dimensions of a problem into account. Lay review boards for clerical abuse have functioned very well for the past seventeen years; a variation on that theme for episcopal accountability should do as well. St. Thomas à Becket, St. John Fisher, Cardinal Mindszenty and Cardinal Stepinac didn’t do very well at the hands of civil authorities. We need to learn from history, lest we repeat its mistakes.

Most of you good readers are not blogging your discontent; you are too busy leading a Gospel-inspired life. When the Church is unfairly targeted (unfairly, not fairly), you need to raise your voice in her defense. You should also give strong support to good priests and bishops (who are in the majority). Last but not least, you must pray for the purification of the Church in her head and members – a painful but necessary process that must take place in every age. If you do these things, you will duc in altum.

Father Peter M. J. Stravinskas
Editor and Publisher

From Cardinal Sean's Blog

Cardinal O'Malley celebrated Mass with pilgrims from Boston before the vigil with the Holy Father in Panama City. Pilot photo/CardinalSeansBlog.org

From Cardinal Sean's Blog

As I left off last week, the Holy Father was just arriving in Panama to attend World Youth Day.

Of course, there were a number of events connected to his welcoming and arrival, and the Holy Father's talks, particularly on Friday, were beautiful.

There were about 30 American bishops with us in Panama and, as I mentioned last week, the U.S. had the largest delegation of any single nation at World Youth Day, except, of course, for Panama.

The theme was "Be It Done to Me According to Thy Word," and they even had rubber wrist bracelets with that phrase on them.

Mass with pilgrims from Boston

On Saturday morning, before the vigil with the Holy Father, I gathered with all the pilgrims from Boston attending World Youth Day at the Church of Our Lady of Carmen, a beautiful Carmelite church in the center of Panama City.

In addition to the group traveling with the archdiocesan pilgrimage, there were parish groups from Revere, Lowell, Marlborough, East Boston, and the cathedral, who are part of the Neocatechumenal Way, the LifeTeen Group from Hanover and Norwell, and a group from the Brazilian community at St. Tarcisius Parish in Framingham.

There were about 200 pilgrims from Boston with us at the Mass -- more than I had been expecting.

Meeting with Pope Francis

On Saturday afternoon, we gathered with the Holy Father at Metropark. We were blessed with the weather because, although it was hot, we had no rain.

The vigil on Saturday evening was impressive. There were a number of testimonies given by individual young people about their faith. There was also a testimony of a family, who spoke about their daughter who has Down syndrome.

There were several musical numbers and then the Holy Father gave a talk, which was followed by adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

It was inspiring to see hundreds of thousands of young people in complete silence during the adoration.

Then, throughout the night, they had concerts and prayers.

Our pilgrims from Boston stayed overnight on the site, though we bishops headed back into the city until about 3:00 a.m., when we headed out again to attend the Sunday morning Mass.

There was a crowd of about 700,000 people for the Mass. The music and the participation were, as always, very moving.

At the Mass, they had relics of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was one of the patrons of this World Youth Day.

At the Mass, I met the pastor of Easter Island, Father Bernardo, who sought me out. He himself is a member of the native peoples of Easter Island, the Rapanui, and told me he is the only Rapanui priest in his archdiocese.

He introduced me to one of his Rapanui parishioners who was with him, as well.

They gave me a necklace and a flag because they knew that Easter Island was my first assignment and they are still waiting for me to come and be the assistant pastor there.

As we concluded, the Holy Father made the announcement that the next World Youth Day will be held in Lisbon, Portugal.

There were a number of Portuguese there, including the patriarch of Lisbon and the head of the Portuguese bishops' conference.

I spoke to the patriarch, and he told me that there is great excitement in Portugal over hosting World Youth Day in 2022. He told me that one of the ideas he has is to reach out to the Portuguese speaking countries in Africa and, hopefully, bring many young people from that part of the world. They also have a close relationship with Cape Verde and Brazil.

The presence of Fatima also makes Portugal an attractive location for World Youth Day.

Scottish Pilgrims in Panama

More stories from the World Youth Day in Panama are coming in.  The next world youth day was also announced in Panama....Portugal.  The following article can be found here.
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The Glasgow pilgrims who beat the odds to see the Pope in Panama

Trio from Scotland travelled 7,000 miles via Spain and Costa Rica to reach World Youth Day

A trio of young pilgrims from Scotland who beat the odds to see Pope Francis in Panama have said World Youth Day made them feel less alone and helped them ‘recharge’ their Faith, as they returned to Glasgow.

No Scottish diocesan or national pilgrimage groups were organised this year to World Youth Day, which brings together young Catholics from across the globe every three years, and it was thought that Scotland was unrepresented at the gathering.

However, the trio from St Thomas in Riddrie, Glasgow, would not be beaten in their goal to attend and financed their own journey by selling almost 4,000 candles in churches and reaching out to a group who were travelling from Portugal.

Through December and January, they raised £4,000, covering more than half of the £2,000 cost each of their 7,000-mile journey from Glasgow to Madrid, Costa Rica and over the border into Panama.

Neocatechumenal

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Panama City from January 22-27. Among them were Madalena Fonseca, 21, Louise Swan, 21, and David Sanchez, 19. All three are part of the Neocatechumenal Way, a Catholic movement with around 100 members in Scotland.

Madalena came to Scotland from Portugal 10 years ago, David arrived from Spain four years ago after his father was asked to evangelise here by the movement, and Louise was born into the Way after her father was introduced to it by the woman he would later marry.

After putting out a call to friends in the movement, Madalena—who has been to World Youth Days in Madrid, Rio and Krakow along with Louise—managed to secure a space on the Portuguese pilgrimage.

Serendipitously, Portugal would later be announced as the venue for the 2022 World Youth Day, meaning the three pilgrims from Scotland were given a prime spot on the stage with Pope Francis during Mass.

Madalena studies optometry at ­Glasgow Caledonian University, David sports and coaching at the City of Glasgow College and Louise is enrolled in French and Spanish at Glasgow University.

Despite busy university schedules and exams, they took time out because ‘World Youth Day was more ­important,’ they said.

Faith recharged

David said WYD helps young ­people ‘recharge their Faith.’

“I say it’s like a battery of a phone. In Poland [for World youth Day 2016] it was 100 per cent, then after three years I was running out of battery and I needed to recharge it.”

He said the vigil Mass in Panama was an incredible moment. “I spoke to everybody that night, from all over the world,” he said. “From Canada, America, Columbia.

“When I went to [World Youth Day] my Faith wasn’t the best, but I could feel Him there, and that filled me up and I can now evangelise again.

“When the Pope was talking about Mary saying ‘yes’ to God, it reminded me of my situation when I had to come [to Scotland]. I felt like the Pope was inviting me to evangelise—and when I get back to college I’m thinking about telling them all what happened.”

Madalena said WYD was a ‘powerful’ experience.

“[The Pope] said some times young people can feel invisible and for me in my life I feel that a lot. You can feel very isolated here in your little life and nobody else believes and then you go to WYD and see all these people who believe the same as you. It’s incredible.”

She added that she hopes to spread what she learned at WYD back in Scotland.

“In my head I say, ‘yes, I’ll do the work of God,’ but when it comes time to act, it’s hard. It’s scary when you come back because you feel like you are in a bubble there, that everything is perfect, and then you come back home to reality. So it can be very hard to give witness to my Faith. But this pilgrimage was a very strong invitation to not be scared because God will be with us. I received so much at WYD that I’d feel very selfish if I keep it all to myself.”

Louise, who also attends St Joseph’s in Clarkston, took a Saltire with her on the trip, and proudly wore it at the various papal events—although she says many of the international pilgrims did not, unfortunately, recognise it.

She said that her Faith gives meaning to her life, and that joining the thousands of young people from across the world gave her hope.

“In Scotland it’s quite easy to feel alone, especially as a young person. Even in a church it can be quite empty. Most of my friends are not Catholic or if they were they don’t go to Mass and no longer believe in God. It’s very hard to be seen as different, and almost put yourself at risk to be mocked or not have any friends—which I know wouldn’t happen, but it is a fear.

“So it’s good to see other young people in the same situation with the same problems as you. It made me feel less isolated. Maybe that’s a problem—that we don’t interact with the youth enough in Scotland in the Church.”

The Neocatechumenal Way was formed in Madrid in 1964 by Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández. In Scotland, they provide catechesis, with groups meeting during the week and for Mass on Saturdays.

Madalena said the Way helps her find answers to life and deepen her Faith. “You participate—you’re invited to share what you’ve learned,” she said describing the movement. “You’re not just there sitting down and filling a chair—you are there because you are giving your life.”

And she encouraged other young people to follow the trio’s lead and attend the next World Youth Day. “It’s not impossible—we took 30 people with us to Brazil, again by selling candles, and its funny how people remember us,” she said. “It is possible if you really do desire to go. Go to World Youth Day—it gives you the strength to carry on.”