Four Lasallian groups from the USA-Toronto Region will take part at World Youth Day (WYD) in Madrid, Spain from August 16 – 21. Bro. Chris Patiño is leading a group from Cathedral High School in Los Angeles, Bro. Fortunat Phong has a large contingent from La San, San Jose, and Bro. Michael Shubnell is leading a group from De La Salle Collegiate in Warren, MI. The fourth group consists of vocation directors, postulants, and young men discerning a vocation to the Brothers’ life.
Dr. Margaret (Maggie) McCarty, Executive Director of the Regional Council of Lasallian Association for Mission (RCLAM), is among the many delegates representing youth leadership in the United States. She is an animator at two of the largest English speaking catechetical sites in Madrid which hold 12,000 pilgrims each. The animators welcome the pilgrims to the sites, coordinate the music, introduce the Bishop’s catechesis, plan the liturgy with the musicians, arrange for priests to concelebrate mass and to conduct reconciliation for the pilgrims. She is working with her husband, Dr. Robert McCarty, Executive Director for the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry in the U.S.
On August 17, Superior General Brother Álvaro Rodríguez Echeverría will address an international gathering of Lasallians at the WYD event.
World Youth Day takes place every three years in a different country. It unites young people from all over the world and introduces them to the message of Christ while creating an atmosphere that shares and reflects on the themes that are fundamental to Christianity.