Romana

During the week of August 15 to 21, 2005, the Müngersdorf International Student Residence quadrupled its usual capacity to accept some three hundred young women participating in World Youth Day from thirteen different countries. The WYD this year, under providential circumstances, was held in Germany with a newly elected German Pope.

A team of about seventy volunteers, mostly German, arrived a week earlier for a training seminar for WYD activities. Organized in teams of ten, the volunteers were given such tasks as preparation and distribution of food, preparing activities for young people in Leverkusen and Düsseldorf, and overseeing the so-called “Adoration Centers” in various churches of Cologne.

The other young women who stayed at the residence followed a program provided by the organizing committee, including daily sessions of catechesis and prayer directed by a priest, and the possibility to attend Holy Mass. Those who so desired were also offered the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Penance. The groups, divided by languages, made use of all the available rooms in the residence as well as the oratory.