CBCP: 99% of World Youth Day delegates back in PHL

Nearly all of the 425 Filipinos who represented the Philippines in the World Youth Day (WYD) in Spain have come home, a Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) official said. CBCP Episcopal Commission on Youth (ECY) Executive Secretary Father Conegundo Garganta said “99 percent" of the country's delegates are all accounted for and are now back in the Philippines. Garganta said the remaining one percent will arrive in the Philippines on October 15, Saturday, the day when their visas expire. “The sub-group leaders already reported and we in the national secretariat for youth apostolate has documented that 99 percent of our delegation to the latest World Youth Day celebration in Madrid is already home," Garganta said. ECY Philippines, the official delegation of the country every World Youth Day, sent a delegation of 425 for this year’s WYD celebration. Since August, CBCP officials had appealed to the delegates not to use the visit to stay behind in Spain and look for work there. Aside from the official delegation under the ECY, some 1,500 more Filipino delegates from other groups took part in the WYD last August. World Youth Day WYD "is a great worldwide encounter with the Pope which is celebrated every three years in a different country," its website said. The intent of the WYD is to "share with the whole world the hope of many young people who want to commit themselves to Christ and others," it said. The WYD is "open to all young people who want to take part in a festive encounter with their contemporaries centered on Jesus Christ," it added. - VVP, GMA News