BRAZIL: Pilgrims Cross arrives in Rio ahead of Pope Francis' visit for July's World Youth Day

Record ID: 862425

  • Title: BRAZIL: Pilgrims Cross arrives in Rio ahead of Pope Francis' visit for July's World Youth Day
  • Date: 10th July 2013
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SIGNING RELIGIOUS SONG TOGETHER
  • Embargoed: 25th July 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • City:
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9XW8LEWRB0FSB7UVDGLLI2SQ6
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  • Story Text: With Pope Francis' visit to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day rapidly approaching, two sacred symbols of the event arrived at the city's headquarters on Wednesday (July 10).
    Besides a life-size statue of Pope Francis himself, the Pilgrim's or World Youth Day cross were delivered along with an icon of the Virgin Mary.
    Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, and the city's archbishop Dom Orani Tempesta presided over the event.
    The main purpose of the pope's trip is to conduct the Catholic Church's World Youth Day, an international gathering sometimes dubbed a "Catholic Woodstock" that takes place in a different city every two to three years.
    World Youth Day celebrations in Brazil, the world's most populous Catholic country, begin July 23 and go until July 28.
    Pope Francis will preside over events on the evening of July 25 at Copacabana Beach as well as an open-air Mass in the Guaratiba area of the city on July 28.
    A million people are expected to attend the final Mass.
    Paes described the significance of receiving the cross and Virgin figure.
    "We have the honour to receive the Pilgrim's Cross here today at the city's headquarters, the house of all Rio's people, in truth to begin the welcoming of Pope Francis," Paes said.
    Before finally arriving in Rio the cross travelled the world alongside the icon, until finally being delivered to the youth of Brazil in 2011.
    Archbishop Tempesta recalled the journey.
    "During this whole time, every day, it (the cross) passed through a new place in Brazil from the north, south, east, west, passing on ships on the Amazon through indigenous villages and prisons," Tempesta said.
    The number of Catholics in Brazil has decreased in recent decades. The Church is hoping World Youth Day might help to reverse that trend.
    Adriana Leite, a devout Catholic who works in the area, spoke about what the arrival of the symbols meant to her personally.
    "There is a lot of emotion to know that we will receive the pope in our city and that the symbols, consecrated by Pope John Paul II, that is now a saint, are so close to where I work. We are all so close to these symbols of our faith," Leite said.
    Pope Francis also plans to visit the slum community of Manguinhos and patients overcoming crack addiction while in Rio.
    The pope's trip is expected to be the only one abroad for this year.
    The former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires is expected to visit his homeland early next year.
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