Cleared for takeoff

Off he goes to his first World Youth Day.

Email petitions to Pope with just a click for World Youth Day Mass

Pope Francis and the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida are making it easy for Catholics, and anyone for that matter, to send in petitions that will be placed in special books to be put at the altar where Pope Francis will celebrate Mass when he travels to Brazil for World Youth Day.  Our friends at CNA have created a direct link from their article reporting this story.  You can read the entire article here.  To go directly to the website collecting the petitions, click here.  Side note: You'll have to use google translate, an option usually provided for you at the top of the page browser in order to understand the instructions and required fields.

Cross landing: 63 days remaining until WYD '13

Cross landing: 63 days remaining until WYD '13.

In this photo from CNS/Reuters found on catholicnews.com, sailors from the Brazilian Navy deliver the World Youth Day cross to a representative group of young Catholics who will continue the global procession that has carried this crossIt has taken part in WYD in Paris (1997), Rome (2000), Toronto (2002), Cologne (2005) and Sydney (2008). It also travelled around Africa(2006), Oceania(2007), Australia (2009) and Spain (2011) according to centrosanlorenzo.com which houses the cross.

Now in 2013, as young pilgrims make final preparations for Rio 2013, the cross has landed upon the shores of the new Pope's home continent.  I'm sure this duty was not one that these sailors had in mind when they signed up to defend their country on the seas.  Yet what a significant and symbolic role they played as they brought the cross from sea to land, government cooperating with religion, a way of truly defending their country againt evil.

Young Tekton Pilgrims Headed to World Youth Day

Recently, The Catholic Moment, the diocesan newspaper for the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana carried a story by Catholic News Service talking about Pope Francis' trip to Brazil in July.  Some may say, "Brazil?!? Why is he going to Brazil?"  Well, if you didn't know, you do now.  Three little words with a huge meaning- World.  Youth.  Day.

For those who may not have heard or seen anything about it in the news, and likely in the United States you didn't, these events, started by Blessed John Paul II, draw hundreds of thousands of youth.  No joke.  The largest-to-date was in the Philippines with over 5,000,000 young people.  5 mil!  In 2011, the event was hosted in Madrid and saw between 1.5-2 million pilgrims.  

What brave souls are taking young pilgrims from Indiana,Wisconsin and Missouri to this year's World Youth Day in Brazil?  Funny you ask.  Tekton Ministries is.  And we're honored to do so.  The faith of many young people these days inspire us just as it did the founder of World Youth Day.  

As a pilgrimage provider who's been around for a while, we tailor our pilgrimages to our priests and their pilgrims.  Whether it be Brazil with 2,000,00 youth or Ireland with 30 adult children of immigrant parents, Tekton works hard (and I mean really hard) to journey with you on your pilgrimage of faith.