Feedback on World Youth Day

Any mention of Panama during this year cannot fail to make mention of the recent visit of Pope

Front of main seminary building

 Francis to lead the celebrations for World Youth Day. Certainly, the feedback from this event is largely positive here (like ourselves, they too have the naysayers) and people seem to have got a lot out of the whole occasion.
World Youth Day, as you probably know, is an event that takes place every  years and it moves from country to country as it is celebrated. A large cross is presented at the closing mass by the host country to the young people from the country that will host it next, in three years time. This year Panama handed over the baton (cross) to Portugal who will host the next World Youth Day in 2022. Even though it seems a long way off, preparations will need to get underway to be able to cope with the huge numbers of young people from all around the world who attend these events.
It is estimated that approximately 300,000 young people participated in this years event: however, of that number less than 100,000 officially registered (the larger number is based not only on those who attended the various elements of the event, but also on the numbers who arrived at the airports and border crossings).

Left over cofessionals

Confessionals were made to look like the JMJ logo

Close-up of confessional

While failure to register officially might have seemed like a great idea to the young people who were, most likely, on a limited budget, the fact that they didn't pay the registration fee (in fairness, not a large sum) means that the costs arising from the event, and remaining to be paid, are much higher than anticipated. The overall figure for hosting WYD (called, in Spanish, JMJ) varies, depending on whom you are talking to - it goes from 20,000,000 to 50,000,000 dollars. A lot of that will have been spent on security (of which, apparently, there was a huge amount), infrastructure (roads had to be resurfaced to cope with the huge amounts of traffic; public toilets, confessionals etc), and publicity. It is worth noting that the Archdiocese here didn't employ extra people to deal with the organisation of the event - it was all done by those already working for the diocese, the parishes and parishioners, local institutions and individuals who volunteered - a real army of people, as you can imagine.
It is also interesting to note that a large part of the overall cost will be met by the Panamanian Government - infrastructure projects are obviously down to them, but, significantly, the government saw the possibilites for this event to be a chance to launch Panama to the world as a destination for both tourism and business - watch this space!!!