Macau youth pilgrims participate in World Youth Comboni Gathering
Marco Carvalho
Former Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam Chon Weng welcomed on Tuesday, at the Humberto Delgado International Airport in Lisbon, the group of 39 young people that the Diocesan Youth Commission sent to Portugal to take part in the 37th edition of the World Youth Day, an event that will bring together thousands of young people from all over the planet in the Portuguese capital from August 1 to 6.
Macau is represented in the largest regular youth pilgrimage in the world by at least four different groups, but the delegation organized by the Diocesan Youth Commission is the largest. The 39-strong group arrived in Portugal on Tuesday morning and headed straight away to Fátima, where they had a full day of activities awaiting.
In Cova da Iria, the young Chinese-language pilgrims visited the basilica and the sanctuary itself, before heading to Aljustrel to visit the humble abode where Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta Marto used to live. Father Rafael Vigolo, spiritual director of the group, briefly explained the Fatima events and shared the essential points of the message that the Virgin bequeathed to the Little Shepherds between May 13 and October 13, 1917.
Coordinated by Tammy Chio, deputy director of the Diocesan Youth Commission, the pilgrimage to the ‘Altar of the World’ concluded in the late afternoon with participation in the Eucharist. After dinner, most of the members of the Cantonese-speaking group returned to the sanctuary to recite the Rosary and took part in the candlelight procession.
On Wednesday, the delegation hit the road again, now towards the north of Portugal. The young pilgrims from the Diocese of Macau stayed until Sunday at the Comboni Missionary Center of Maia. The facilities hosted until the end of the month the ‘World Youth Comboni Gathering’, the pre-journey event that was organized by the Comboni family.
The original plans of the delegation led by Tammy Chio were for the group to be installed in Viseu, in the first venues of the Comboni Missionaries in Portugal. An alternative solution came from Father Manuel Machado, the former parish priest of Saint Joseph the Worker, in northern Macau.
“With the help of Father Manuel Machado, we were originally planning to stay at the seminary where he is currently posted, in Viseu. But since these facilities are for older religious, we decided to join the activities of the ‘World Youth Comboni Gathering’ and we slept in the facilities of the Youth Vocational Centre,” the deputy director of the Diocesan Youth Commission told O Clarim.
“But if we were able to join the ‘World Youth Comboni Gathering’, it was because of Fathers Manuel Machado and Rafael Vigolo, who are also Comboni Missionaries, since this event is aimed at young people who are currently receiving training among the Comboni Missionaries,” Tammy Chio concluded.
Among the 16 Portuguese dioceses that have welcomed participants to the World Youth Day over the last week, Porto was the one that received the most. All-in-all there were more than 16,000 young people spread across dozens of parishes.
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