World Youth Day USA Guides Stateside Pilgrimage Leaders Guide | Page 7

Pilgrimage in the Advent of Technology
The modern age of technology has

can be live-streamed through a computer,

transformed the communal experience of

while simultaneously downloading images of

faith in ways that we could never have

the Pope on a phone, and reading the latest

imagined thirty years ago when St. John Paul

WYD blog post from the local diocesan

II held the first international gathering of

seminarians on a tablet. Just sign up on

young people in Rome (in what would

Twitter or Instagram, and World Youth Day

eventually be called “World Youth Day”) in

groups will send virtual pilgrims a flood of

1984. The advances since then have

photos and quotes from the day's events.

significantly reshaped global events and the

Facebook and Google groups can help filter

manner in which these events are shared.

out a lot of the noise and direct one’s focus
on one diocese, religious movement, or parish

In the early twentieth century, events such as

that is closer to one's heart. If that isn't

the Olympics or the World Cup were the

enough to make someone feel like they are

platforms for large international gatherings,

almost there, one might get to video chat with

but only a relatively few lucky individuals

a friend while the Pope is addressing the

experienced them. These were events that

crowd, presuming enough bandwidth via

newspapers and periodicals were vying to

Wi-Fi or a 4G hotspot has been secured.

report on, later to be joined by the nightly

The use of technology in service to the

newscasts on radio and then television. With

Faith is truly remarkable. It has opened up a

technology in peoples’ homes, these special

tremendous possibility to Catholic leaders.

moments in history were no longer limite