WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington will host "WYD Unite," a public
celebration designed to share the spirit of World Youth Day (WYD),
on Saturday, Oct. 22, beginning at
12 p.m.
Featuring live music, engaging speakers, and opportunities for
prayer and reflection, the day's events will kick off with a
keynote address from Father Dave
Dwyer, a popular radio show host and former TV director, at
1 p.m.
"The day will also honor St. John Paul II, who instituted World
Youth Day, which is a huge, festive – and profoundly spiritual –
gathering of young people from all over the world, held every two
or three years," said Patrick E.
Kelly, executive director of the shrine. "We hope this
gathering carries on the prayerful joy that was on display at prior
WYD events, including the World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, in August."
WYD Unite coincides with the feast day of Pope St. John Paul II
and will include the dedication of a new statue of the saint. It is
open to the public and will welcome alumni of past World Youth
Days, which have been held since the inaugural 1984 WYD in
Rome.
In addition to Father Dwyer, who worked for a time on Comedy
Central, speakers will include Christina
Shabo, an Iraqi Christian who will share her powerful story
of forgiveness of ISIS as she did at WYD in Krakow; Olympic skier
Rebecca Dussault; and Eric Mahl, a former NFL linebacker who now
serves the poor on America's streets.
At 4:30 p.m. the shrine will
unveil the new centerpiece of its front plaza, an 11-foot-tall
statue of Pope St. John Paul II. The sculptor, Chas Fagan, was also commissioned by the Knights
of Columbus earlier this year to paint the portrait of Mother
Teresa of Calcutta that became her
official canonization image.
An open-air Mass to mark John Paul
II's feast day will be celebrated at 5 p.m. on the shrine's front lawn by Msgr.
J. Brian Bransfield, the general
secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The day will also include popular D.C.-based food trucks, a
vocations fair and exposition of relics of St. John Paul II, St.
Teresa of Calcutta, and St.
Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun whose visions of Jesus resulted
in the famous image of Divine Mercy.
The Face of Mercy, a new documentary from the Knights of
Columbus that explores moving stories of forgiveness and
reconciliation, narrated by actor Jim
Caviezel, will be shown, as will a trailer for
Certainty, a dynamic and emotional documentary about people
from four different continents whose lives give witness to man's
search for true and deep meaning in life.
More information can be found at: jp2shrine.org/wydunite.
The Saint John Paul II National Shrine, a landmark initiative of
the Knights of Columbus, is located at 3900 Harewood Road NE.
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SOURCE Saint John Paul II National Shrine