Holding their passports and preparing their backpacks on July 19, members of the St. Rose of Lima Youth Group are off to Brazil for World Youth Day July 21-31. From left, with the flag they planned to wave among the crowds that are estimated to swell to 2 million pilgrims, they are Mayra Magana, 19, a student at Gateway Community College in New Haven, Steve DiMotta, coordinator of religious education and youth ministry for St. Rose Parish in New Haven; chaperone Judy Graham; and Sinead Brennan, 17, a freshman at American University.
A second youth group also is representing the Archdiocese of Hartford.
Sharon Gagne, youth minister at St. James Parish in Rocky Hill, accompanied Alexandria Gia Caudullo of Bolton; Cynthia Celone of Orange; Kevin Hadyka and Joseph and Ginamarie Garabedian of East Hartford; and Ann and Ronald Petrillo of Orange.