Pope ends World Youth Day trip with many words of thanks

(August 22, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI Sunday wrapped up his four day visit to Spain, where he participated in the Catholic Church's World Youth Day celebrations. The Pontiff said he was leaving Madrid filled with gratitude to the Spanish people, the World Youth Day organizers and volunteers and the million-plus pilgrims who prayed with him. "Spain is a great nation whose soundly open, pluralistic and respectful society is capable of moving forward without surrendering it’s profoundly religious and Catholic soul," the pope told King Juan Carlos and other dignitaries on Sunday before boarding a plane to return to Rome. Spain has a reputation as a country where the overwhelming majority of residents are baptized, but faith has little resonance in public policy. But Pope Benedict said the way Spanish society handled World Youth Day showed it could rally for a great cause: "helping young people to become more deeply rooted in Jesus Christ, our saviour." The pope thanked the young pilgrims who came to Madrid for World Youth Day with their joyful, enthusiastic and intense presence. "I leave Spain very happy and grateful to everyone. But above all, I am grateful to God, our Lord, who allowed me to celebrate these days so filled with enthusiasm and grace, so charged with dynamism and hope," the 84-year-old pope said at Madrid's International Airport.
The grace of Christ, the pope said, "tears down the walls and overcomes the barriers which sin erects between people and generations," a fact the pilgrims at World Youth Day experienced firsthand. The pope said the celebration also proved that young people will respond happily and massively "when one proposes to them, in sincerity and truth, an encounter with Jesus Christ." He asked bishops, priests and lay leaders to make sure that their young pilgrims are supported as they return home, so the experience could transform their lives.
Before going to the airport, Pope Benedict took time to thank about 12,000 of the 30,000 volunteers from around the world that ensured the smooth functioning of the August 16-21 World Youth Day events. Crowds cheering and waving banners bid the pope farewell as he travelled through the streets of Madrid on the way to the airport. Babies were lifted through the window of the pope mobile for a papal kiss as he circled the crowd, smiling and waving. After greeting a handful of volunteers personally, Pope Benedict addressed the entire group, acknowledging all their efforts that went into preparing for these days, all the sacrifices, all the love. "Everybody did his or her best, by work and prayer, to weave, stitch by stitch, the magnificent, colourful tapestry of this World Youth Day," he said. About 1.5 million young pilgrims attended the World Youth Day celebrations in Spain, the Vatican said Sunday. Pope Benedict arrived in Rome at 9.20 pm and went directly to his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo.