The national World Youth Day Festival is a gathering for young Catholics across the globe and the Pope in which they celebrate their faith and show their love for humanity.

The event was initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985 when he invited Catholics from all over the world to St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican City on Palm Sunday, according to the national World Youth Day’s official website.

Since then, there have been 15 international World Youth Day events. Seniors Carolay Ospina and Georgia Aguirre attended the most recent one with Pope Francis January 22-27 in Panama City, Panama.

It was Ospina’s first World Youth Day experience. She said that she heard about it from her parish priest while at mass one day at Our Lady of Americas in Lilburn and that she immediately wanted to go because she was looking for a new experience and had heard great

things about the trip.

“I wanted to open up my faith and be closer to God,” she said.

Aguirre attended the 2016 World Youth Day in Poland. “I loved it so I decided to go again,” she said. “You get to share your faith with millions of people there, which was the really cool thing.”

There were two parts of  the trip, the first where the group went to Columbia and visited the Panama Canal, which Aguirre said was her favorite part of the trip. They then traveled to Panama where they saw the Pope, with Aguirre adding that they “got to see him really close too.”

Ospina’s favorite part of the trip was the night of adoration and prayer when the group of attendees went camping.

“It was late, like two in the morning or three. All the youth people were hanging out and we were singing cheers and dancing and having fun,” She recalled with a smile.

Both girls got the chance to encounter Christ on the trip in their own ways.

“There was this one day that they brought the holy cross. It was something specifically for us because not many people get to see it on the trip and the fact that they brought it to our Church, it brought me closer to Him [Jesus],” Ospina said.

For Aguirre, she found Christ with the Pope.

“My last trip I saw the Pope but only on a screen; I never saw him come past us, and [on] this trip he came past me. He was really, really close to me and after that first time seeing him pass by it was a moment of crying because you felt that,” She said.

Ospina said that she definitely recommends going on a World Youth Day trip, “especially if you are really trying to find your spirituality and are trying to get closer to your faith.”

“Just be ready for new experiences and a lot of walking… a lot of walking,” Aguirre warned as Ospina laughed, “It is a lot of walking.” However, Aguirre explained that “the point of that [the walking] is that you’re a pilgrim.”

The next World Youth Day will be hosted in Lisbon, Portugal in 2022, and there is no doubt that both Ospina and Aguirre will be there.

Gallery • 2 Photos