World Youth Day 1995 ( tl, Pandaigdigang Araw ng Kabataan 1995) was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

youth festival that took place from January 10 to 15, 1995, in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

, Philippines. It was the first time for an Asian country to host the event.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

presided over the event, marking his second trip to the country as Pope after his visit in 1981, and also the last papal visit in the country of the 20th century and

2nd millennium File:2nd millennium montage.png, From top left, clockwise: in 1492, Christopher Columbus reaches North America, opening the European colonization of the Americas; the American Revolution, one of the late 1700s Enlightenment-inspired Atlantic Rev ...

The program of the days

Since the opening ceremony, the Pope underlines the importance of the Filipino Catholic Church. At the meeting of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC), the Pope points out what are the new areas of the contemporary mission: the poor of cities, migrants, refugees, young people, the media and social communications. "In the first millennium," he says, "the Cross has been planted on the soil of Europe; in the second on that of America and Africa; we can pray that in the third Christian millennium in this vast and vital continent there will be a great harvest of faith to be harvested".

Events

A week before the celebration of the World Youth Day proper, two representatives from each of countries all over the world gathered for an International Youth Forum (IYF) at the

University of Santo Tomas The University of Santo Tomas (also known as UST and officially as the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, Manila) is a private, Catholic research university in Manila, Philippines. Founded on April 28, 1611, by Spanish friar Miguel ...

. The Philippines sent eight representatives, while others were from the different Catholic religious youth organizations and campuses. These were the selected youth leaders and coordinators. During their five-day stay in UST, representatives were grouped and discussed issues and concerns laid out by the Episcopal Commission on Youth, on topics set months before. The IYF was also a venue wherein few from these selected youth representative had able to have a short talk with the Pope. Young pilgrims gathered from many different parts of the world to celebrate God together, to learn other cultures and to speak as "brothers and sisters" among themselves. There was also a

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

where some youths directly received Communion from the Pope. Youth pilgrims gathered from different parts of the world to worship and talk together. Different activities were held, including a traditional ''Barrio Fiesta'', where it was possible to search company and entertainment. During these days, Masses were celebrated every day in most parishes throughout the Philippines. The closing Mass, held at Luneta Park, was estimated to have been attended by more than 5 million people, the second-largest papal gathering in history. The event saw the presence of Catholic representatives of all Chinese communities: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong,

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

, Malaysia, and Singapore. Already on January 12, the archbishop of Taipei,

Joseph Ti-kang Joseph Ti Kang (7 May 1928 – 29 December 2022) was a Taiwanese Roman Catholic prelate who served as the archbishop of Taipei from 1989 to 2004. He was born in Xinxiang, China. He became Bishop of Kiayi, and was succeeded by Bishop Joseph Che ...

, celebrated mass with 5 priests of the "official" Chinese Roman Catholic Church. On January 14, through Radio Veritas, the pope launches a message of reconciliation between the "official" and underground Chinese Church addressed to "all the Catholic faithful". At the end of the Mass in Luneta Park, the Pope greeted in

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

, the language of China and Taiwan. This was Pope John Paul II's last visit to the Philippines, as his scheduled return for the World Meeting of Families in January 2003 fell through due to the progression of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

Official song

The official song for World Youth Day 1995 was released in 1994, titled " Tell the World of His Love", composed by

Trina Belamide Katrina "Trina" Belamide is a Philippines, Filipino songwriter and record producer. According to the ''Manila Times'' she has written songs for most of the Philippines' top recording artists. Career Belamide began taking piano lessons at age 8 ...

Theme

"As the Father has sent me, so am I sending you". ( Jn 20:21) the same as that of the World Youth Day of 1994, which was celebrated at the diocesan level on Palm Sunday of that year, fall on March 27.

John Paul II's assassination attempt

Ramzi Yousef, an

Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

member, attempted to assassinate the Pope in the

Bojinka Plot The Bojinka plot ( ar, بوجينكا; tl, Oplan Bojinka) was a large-scale, three-phase terrorist attack planned by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for January 1995. They planned to assassinate Pope John Paul II; blow up 11 airliners ...

, but the plan was discovered four days earlier and Yousef fled to Pakistan.

Notes and references

External links

Guinness Book of World Records – Largest Papal Crowd

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1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1995 in the Philippines 1995 in Christianity January 1995 events History of Manila History of Metro Manila 20th century in Manila Pope John Paul II Catholic Church in the Philippines