What no one tells you about WYD-Part 1

World Youth Day is a Catholic Youth Festival first instituted by the St. Pope John Paul II in 1985/6 thereabouts. It happens at parish, deanery, diocesan, national and international levels. Read more about WYD here

The international version happens every three or four years. The last one just ended on the 6th of August 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal. It’s an amazing youth festival that I personally wish all catholic youth can experience.

I’ve been sharing quite a bit about WYD on my blog. Check out some other posts about being travel worthy and financing your WYD journey here.

Today’s post focuses on some of the inconveniences of WYD and I have titled it “What no one tells you about WYD”.

So here goes.

The series will do a before, during and after WYD. This post focuses on before WYD.

The first thing I’d like to talk about before WYD is how expensive it can be especially for those from African countries.

Travelling for WYD can cost between USD 3,000 or more depending on where it is being held. And this is minus spending money. This is a lot of money that not many youth can afford. Some parishes sponsor youth but how many parishes can afford to do so especially when there seems to be no direct benefit to the parish and it has been sometimes considered a sort of reward for active youth. Some youth also raise funds to attend the WYD but in hard economic times, this can be difficult. Some families also sponsor youth. But anyways, it’s not impossible.

Another important detail to consider is the time commitment in preparing for WYD. There are meetings especially related to the travel documentation, interviews to attend, sometimes other meetings and possibly a retreat all before WYD. In addition, the WYD itself lasts for about one, two or three weeks depending on if you are participating only in the main events (one week), mission days and main events (two weeks) or mission days, main events and sometimes a tour (3 weeks). Depending on your life situation, you may not be able to participate or you may have to do a lot of planning to be able to do so. But it’s not impossible, families are able to travel to WYD.

A third thing to consider is the laborious travel process. Africans seeking visas to travel usually need to provide a lot of documentation to prove their social and economic ties to their country. From salary slips, to your appointment letter, bank statements, an introductory letter from your organisation to copies of business registration documents for entrepreneurs, invitation letters, bookings for accommodation, travel insurance and a flight booking, the list is seemingly endless. Then comes the appointment process, submitting the documents, the endless wait for your passport and the decision and sometimes the heartbreaking news that you have been denied a visa, sometimes for reasons that only the consular knows. It can be a very expensive and time consuming process.

The final thing I will share in the before travel inconveniences is the travel itself. Airports are a world of their own and travelling can come with a lot of inconveniences from trying to remember to pack everything you will need for the time you will be away, to making sure you have not exceeded the baggage limits to not having any “exempt” items in your carry on luggage and risk having them thrown away.

These are a few thoughts that come to mind about things that can affect your WYD before you participate in it. Are there others you know of? Kindly share in the comments section.

Angela Azumah Alu