Catholic Transcript Online

ROCKY HILL – Pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Hartford returned home after experiencing what George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, called a "tsunami of faith and joy" at World Youth Day from July 15 to 20 in Australia.

Still jet-lagged from their 20-hour journey, a handful of the 13 pilgrims gathered at St. James Parish to debrief and recount stories, memories, laughs shared and new friends gained from the trip that, for most, will be the "memory of a lifetime."

"We’ll be telling stories about this 20 years from now," said Dottie Caudullo, 17, who went with her mother, Louise, from St. Bartholomew Parish.

"It was incredible," said Sharon Gagne, youth minister at St. James Parish, who led the trip – marking her fourth World Youth Day – with students from her parish as well as those from St. Bartholomew in Manchester and St. Christopher in East Hartford.

"Everyone in Sydney was so helpful and nice," she said, capturing the "no worries" character of those "down under."

"Every lamp post had a World Youth Day banner," she said, "and volunteers were everywhere." Among them was Yanka, a woman assigned to the group who "went above and beyond" to provide "whatever we needed."

The group relayed stories of their seeing Pope Benedict XVI and of their attending liturgies, mixing with the 300,000 pilgrims, enjoying a tour of a rain forest, snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef and visiting an Aboriginal village.

The highlight of the trip, they said, was a three-day catechesis presented in a local parish that the group actually got into by mistake, but which ended up being a positive, bonding experience for everyone.

"Somehow, I signed us up for the catechesis, but I had no idea what I was volunteering us for," said Ms. Gagne, who later learned that nearly 250 teaching sessions led by bishops had been held throughout Sydney as part of the scheduled events.

She also learned that her group was responsible for presenting additional catechetical material.

Fortunately, at the last minute, she had thought to load skits, songs, clip art, and other ministry programs onto her computer flash drive, along with all the medical records, parental consent forms, visas and records of those under her charge.

"Somehow," said Ms. Gagne, "we had all the right people with everyone in our group assigned a role" – singing, making hand gestures, performing, copying. "We threw together an introduction, songs, and skits and showed up at the church at eight o’clock in the morning.

"I still didn’t know what to expect. But before I went into the sacristy to sign some papers, I noticed that there were about 20 people in the church," she recalled. "When I came out, boom, there were at least 600 people in the pews, and out the door.

"We sang ‘Lean on Me,’ ‘Awesome God,’ ‘Big House’ and ‘Beautiful,’ and the people really got into it. They asked us if we were professionals and wanted to buy our CDs," she said with a laugh.

"Everyone asked for copies of the songs or wanted our e-mails," she said, still surprised by the overwhelming reaction. "All the priests, sisters and even the bishop were doing the hand gestures. They loved it.

"It was amazing," said Ms. Gagne. "You never know what God has planned."

Lauren Charamut, 17, who starts at Keene College in New Hampshire this fall, agreed. "It just brought us all closer together and opened us up."

Also amazing for Lauren was the camaraderie felt among the pilgrims. "People would call to each other just walking down the street, yelling out their country and singing in their native language.

"It’s the first time I’ve ever been out of the country," she said, noting that at one point, she was only 10 feet away from the Pope, "so the whole trip really expanded my awareness.

"Plus, the experience of knowing that everyone was there for the same reason, to see the Pope and let him see us, was amazing."

Dottie Caudullo, who is thinking about attending Kings College, a Catholic college in Pennsylvania, a year from now, was most impressed by the traditional overnight vigil held at Sydney’s Randwick Racecourse.

As pilgrims claimed a spot on the turf and held lighted candles, the vigil began with the Pope’s lighting a torch carried by a young native woman, and ended with eucharistic adoration, spotlighting an enormous, six-foot-tall monstrance.

"We ran into tons of teens," some of whom she plans to keep in touch with through MySpace.com. "It made me proud to be Catholic."

While bands, native groups and rap music played into the night, and temperatures, during what is Sydney’s winter, dipped into the 40s, pilgrims danced, talked, exchanged MySpace information and eventually unrolled sleeping bags and blankets to try to get some sleep.

"I can see why … World Youth Day is not advised for anyone under 16," said Dottie’s mom, Louise. "You don’t sleep, you don’t eat and it’s physically demanding … a lot of walking.

"But I never laughed so hard in all my life," she said, still laughing. "Laughter was a huge thing on this trip."

One recollection was of a group from the United Kingdom who brought a life-size cutout of their pastor that they carried with them throughout WYD, taking pictures of people next to the cutout.

A universal downside for the group was the food, such as soup in a bag, meat pies, salmon mixed with corn and tuna fish in a can. But brownies, cupcakes, oranges, bread, candy, some of the local snacks and locating a Subway restaurant seemed to make up for the differences in tastes.

With the trip carrying a hefty $4,000 price tag, parishes held fund-raisers to help offset costs. Donors from St. James Parish signed a banner that the pilgrims carried to Sydney, asked the Pope to bless and plan to hang in the parish.

Accolades for great a pilgrimage were showered upon Ms. Gagne. "She did an incredible job," said Louise, who is already planning to encourage her middle daughter to attend World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid, Spain. "I’ll follow her anywhere."

Sharon deflected the compliment. "As a leader, you always worry about bumps along the way. But there was no arguing or complaining. We just all complemented each other.

"Everyone helped each other out, and took time to take care of themselves," she said. "We worked really well together."

Before and throughout their trip, Ms. Gagne, Lauren and Abby Rosenberger, also from St. James, posted comments and videos on MyCatholicVoice.com, a Web site that describes itself as an "online Catholic resource for personal inspiration and community ministry."