10T expected to join National Youth Day

CEBU, Philippines — Close to 10,000 young Catholics in the country are expected to gather in Cebu for the staging of the National Youth Day this April.

The organizers of the biggest religious gathering among Filipino youth have opened 10,000 slots for interested participants.

Father Andrei Ventanilla, assistant chairman to the Cebu Archdiocesan Commission on Youth (COY), said the organizers decided to prepare 10,000 slots for the participants, with an estimated 8,500 slots for national pilgrims and 1,500 for the local.

Ventanilla said the initial count has reached over 7,000 participants, where more than 6,200 from the national and almost 960 at the local level.

Organizers are still on the process of consolidating the registration data as other documents from both delegations are still pending.

COY Chairman Father Mark Rommel Barneso said that no more another extension on the registration would be given.  The registration was closed officially last January 23.

The deadline was supposedly set last December 8, 2018 but was stretched to January 23 to allow other young individuals who are interested to join the event.

Local pilgrims submitted their registration forms at the Archdiocesan Youth Center in Cebu City while the national participants registered with the Episcopal Commission on Youth.

As to the preparations, Ventanilla said several coordination meetings are still going on among the different teams and also with the local government units and government agencies from the different host cities and towns.

He said organizers are also gathering funds and they have appealed to different parishes for assistance and sponsorships.

Ventanilla said Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma is also set to attend the general assembly of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines and plans to invite the Filipino bishops to the event.

The Cebu archdiocese was earlier picked to host this year’s National Youth Day which happens to fall in the same year when the Philippine Catholic Church celebrates the Year of the Youth.

The religious event is slated from April 23 to 28, 2019.

The Philippine Catholic Church observes the Year of the Youth, which is the eighth of the nine-year journey leading to the Jubilee Year in 2021 that marks the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the country. —/GAN (FREEMAN)