As part of the World Youth Day 2008 celebrations we were privileged to have the World Youth Day Cross and Icon of Mary in our school grounds today. World Youth Day is actually a series of events, culminating in a final mass in Sydney on 20 July 2008. The Journey of the Cross and Icon began its New Zealand trip on 10 June, and will make its way northwards over the course of this month. It will leave our shores for Sydney on 30 June.
The cross was gifted to the youth of the world by Pope John Paul II, and has travelled far and wide – it has been throughout Europe, the United States, Canada, South America and The Philippines, to Poland and Prague, to the German Parliament and even to Ground Zero in New York. The Icon of Mary joined with the cross in its travels in 2003.After the celebration at Verdon College, the Cross and Icon left for Bluff and Stewart Island.
