For diocesan pilgrims, World Youth Day a powerful witness to God’s mercy

By Lauren Clem, RI Catholic Staff Reporter 

Editor’s Note: Staff Reporter Lauren Clem traveled with a group from the Diocese of Providence to World Youth Day 2016 and reports this week, and also in our next edition, on the pilgrimage, as well as their travels to other religious and historically significant sites in Poland and the Czech Republic.

KRAKOW, Poland — When 65 youth, young adults and chaperones from the Diocese of Providence arrived in Krakow, Poland, the evening before the start of World Youth Day on Tuesday, July 26, many of them did not know what to expect. Some had attended past World Youth Days in Toronto and other locations, and a few had read up on the experience, discovering accounts of spiritual conversion, widespread fellowship and a lot of walking. More.