World Youth Day 2002
The 17th World Youth Day 2002 (WYD2002) was a Catholic youth festival held from July 23 to July 28, 2002 in Toronto, Canada. World Youth Day is a celebration of faith begun by Pope John Paul II held on an international level every two to three years, and WYD2002 was the tenth such event. It was also Pope John Paul II's last World Youth day. There were an estimated 400,000-500,000 youths from all over the world participating in the week-long festival. Although WYD is designed for Catholics, it attracts sizable numbers of youths from other faiths and denominations, and it was made as a multi-faith celebration of young people from all over the world.
As the event is ultimately an expression of faith, and a critical expression of faith is through service to others, World Youth Day 2002 had the support of some 25,000 volunteers; and some 100,000 pilgrims themselves spent three hours each on one of 750 service projects.
The theme of the event was "You are the salt of the earth ... you are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:13-14).
The groundswell of Catholic spirituality following World Youth Day 2002 in Canada led to the establishment of Canada's first national Catholic television network, Salt + Light Television. Fr. Thomas Rosica, who was the National Director of WYD2002, is also the founder and Chief Executive Officer of this new television station.
Read more about World Youth Day 2002: Days in The Diocese, John Paul II's Last WYD, Theme Song
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