Special Liturgies and Catecheses Planned
TORONTO, JULY 18, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Organizers of World Youth Day will allocate special times of prayer and dialogue to participants from the Eastern rites of the Catholic Church.
Some from the East are just emerging from years of religious persecution, or still live in difficult circumstances. Arriving in Canada will be young people from Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere in the Mideast, and from Eastern Europe.
Among the ecclesial representatives who will be in Toronto is Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, patriarch emeritus of Antioch of the Syrians and prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. He will give catechesis to the young people.
Participants from Eastern-rite traditions, such as Alexandrian, Antiochian, Armenian, Chaldean and Byzantine, will have their own liturgy and catechesis in the days preceding the vigil with the Pope on Saturday, July 27.
They will meet in the church of St. Nicholas and Our Lady of Lebanon, in Trinity Bellwoods Park, in Holy Cross Parish, in the National Trade Center and in Marilyn Bell Park.
Catecheses will be held in English, French, Arabic and in the bishops' Slavic languages, according to their rite.
The initiative has awakened "a certain curiosity in many groups. So appropriate places have been selected to be able to accommodate additional young people who want to know something more about their Eastern-rite brothers," said Rima Hbeika, an organizer.
ZENIT - The World Seen from Rome
18. juli 2002