St. Theresa LIFE TEEN - WYD 2000

August 16, 2000, Day 10

lifeteen_prayingc.jpg (29281 bytes)
(praying at the LIFE Teen rally near the Spanish steps in Rome)

Diary entry from Caitlyn Szymanski

Last night we ended up getting into our rooms at 2am and got to sleep around 2:30. We slept in through breakfast and Mrs. Roll snuck us some rolls and jam from the restaurant and brought them to our room. Then we went out for a free day in Rome. We had lunch in our small group on the steps of the Pantheon. We went into some stores and had some really good gelato. Then we had to take the crammed Metro back to the Spanish steps. We met some other youth groups by the steps while we were out and got two groups (one from New York and another from Colorado Springs) to go to the Life Teen rally. After the rally we saw them there. Having them come to the rally made it feel like a real pilgrimage because we got them to come. We got to hear Tom Booth warm up and everybody started getting excited. Then Fr. Dale gave a extremely motivational speech. What really hit me was that he told us to be proud to be Catholic. We can bring the Church back to life by showing our pride. Also how we need to overcome the culture of death and be pro-life, and change our lifestyles. And that we need to surrender ourselves to God. I'm definitely going to try to change me lifestyle a lot. Around people at work and at Church I want to be on fire for my faith and outgoing, instead of being shy about my faith. Closing with adoration was awesome and spiritual. To see thousands of teens on their knees for Christ was incredible. Everyone was so willing just to get down and praise Christ, even with the sirens and cheers of other groups. It made me realize that I'm a part of something really big.

Caitlyn saying hi (672 kB)

Travel log

This morning we were able to sleep in until 9am for breakfast and 11am if you didn't want breakfast. Most people slept in until 11am, and Mrs. Roll, Grandma Roll, the Moores, and Alex snuck out some rolls, biscotti and jelly to give to those people. We got on the Metro again (reluctantly, although the crowds were not near as bad) and headed towards the Spanish steps where we would meet later. From there we all had the whole day free to go wherever we wanted. Some people went to the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi fountain, the Vittoriano, and the Roman Forum. It was good that we split up into our teams because the crowds were huge and it was hard to keep even five people together. At 5:00 we started to gather for the LIFE Teen rally. We were able to get front row seats because we were there so early. At like 5:45 they did a sound check which included a bunch of songs and already the crowd was getting big. At 7:15pm, Tom Booth and the band started up with some songs. After slowing it down a little bit, Fr. Dale got up and talked to everyone for 10 minutes or so. He challenged the crowd to do five things: be 100% Catholic, go to Mass everyweek, change our lifestyles, be pro-life, and get passionate for Jesus. After that, the new spokesperson for LIFE Teen, Matt Smith from MTV's The Real World got up and spoke. He told us how he has stayed dedicated to Jesus and the Church by going to daily Mass. He said that we'll never see on the show how he got others to go to Mass with him and how they liked it. He told us about how his faith life got turned on fire and how he grew to love LIFE Teen. Now he's a core member in Atlanta, Georgia. He told us how he had to give us his plan for his life and gave it over to God and that's when great things happened for him. Next, Cardinal George from Chicago spoke briefly because he had come to the rally. After that, there was adoration for about 15 minutes and everyone got down on their knees in the middle of the square on the hard rock street. Then we sang more songs. Things were really pumped up and people even began to crowd surf. It was an extremely good rally. The crowd stretched all the way back across the square, totaling probably 40,000 people. Afterwards we were nervous about taking the Metro home, but we had no problems at all. We didn't have to wait really at all and the cars were not nearly as crowded. Since most people had again skipped dinner to go (although we did make snack runs) after meeting up with the bus again, we went to McDonalds. We arrived back at the hotel around midnight. Tomorrow will be an early day because we have to be at the Sistine Chapel at 8am.

A few extra pics from Day 9

The congregation at Mass
The congregation at Mass (2)
Darren Tewes proclaiming a reading
Steve Greene proclaiming at Mass
Fr. Jim proclaiming the Gospel
A few people at Mass

More Pictures (all from Day 10)

Back to World Youth Day Page

Last updated on Saturday, May 21, 2005

The Vatican

Diocese of Phoenix

College LIFE

ALIVE!

LifeTeen.org