PAUL ISAIAH G. Lorenzo, a second year civil engineering student, joined young people around the world in prayer and fellowship for the World Youth Day (WYD), Aug. 16-21, in Madrid, Spain.

Lorenzo, who hails from Piddig town, was one of five young individuals from Ilocos Norte who represented the Diocese of Laoag and the Neocatechumenate, a church organization, to the biggest gathering of young Christians. Around 2,000 Filipinos joined hundreds of thousands who trooped to the Spanish Capital for prayer and fellowship.

World Youth Day is a global encounter with the Pope which is celebrated every two years in a different country. It was held in Manila in 1995, when the largest crowd assembled in human history attended the Mass officiated by the late Pope John Paul II, now a blessed, at the Luneta. In 2013, WYD will go to Rio de Janeiro, Barzil.

Even as the papal visit has been marred by protests over the $73-million cost of the youth celebrations at a time of economic uncertainty, spending cuts and youth unemployment rates of 45 percent, Pope Benedict XVI admonished the youth to become “ambassadors of the joy that the world needs.”