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WORLD YOUTH DAY OPENS WITH OVER 600,000
YOUTH
ROME 8/15 (EWTNews) Pope John Paul II
looked incredibly vibrant as he welcomed hundreds of thousands of
singing and dancing youth from around the world to Rome celebrating
the 15th World Youth Day. The Holy Father addressed the young people
in successive appearances in two of the capital's largest squares --
St John Lateran and St Peter's Square. Reports stated there were at
least 300,000 people in each of the areas, making for some of the
largest crowds ever gathered in the center of the capital. Large
television turbo-trons linked the two crowds in the squares.
At one point at St John Lateran, the Holy
Father put down his script as the youth chanted ``Viva il Papa'' for
some 10 minutes. Not
wanting to leave the youth gathered at St. John Lateran, the Pope
traveled by "popemobile" through the streets to St. Peter’s
Square, the second
venue. During
the event, the Vatican fire department sprayed water over the crowd
in St Peter's Square to keep people cool in the hot afternoon sun.
The six days of World Youth Day festivities
conclude on Sunday with a Mass expected to top 1.2 million in
attendance on the Tor Vergata campus of Rome University on the
city's borders.
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