facebook Fr. Alan meets Francis in World Youth Day - Missionaries of the Sacred Heart

Okay, so the title is a little misleading, but the event itself is spectacular! MSC Vocations is over in Rio for World Youth Day 2013. The weather is perfect! We’re right next to Copacabana Beach! Pope Francis is en route! The atmosphere is AMAZING! Over the week you can follow our blog to keep up to date with all that’s happening in Brazil for the largest youth gathering on the planet!

Fr. Alan and Francis in Rio

Fr. Alan and Francis in Rio

Day 1 Next Stop Rio

To sleep or not to sleep? That is the question. When you’ve only got four hours before you grab your bags and head for Heathrow airport there a solid argument to be made for staying up. But sleep it is and before you know it we’re up and getting ready for the bus at the ungodly hour of 3:45am in the MSC Parish of Ss. Alban and Stephen. It’s all for a good cause though as we’re on our way to Rio de Janeiro for the 2013 World Youth Day.

This year World Youth Day is going to involve 3,000,000 young Catholics, eight days and one Pope. It’s going to be spectacular! I’m writing this on the plane as we speed over the Atlantic ocean at 900km an hour. We’re just about to reach Brazil, but our journey is not over yet. There’s another two hours flying time before we even get to Rio. It’s not surprising as Brazil is one of the largest countries in the world, in addition to being home to the highest population of Catholics globally. A festival of faith in the city of Carnival, samba and the Copacabana, is sure to be an unforgettable occasion.

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Meeting up with the Brazilians on Copacabana Beach

All in all we have eleven in our Missionaries of the Sacred Heart group. They come from all over including St. Albans, our MSC college in Princethorpe, Liverpool and Cork. We’ve joined in with the Archdiocese of Westminster for the week. After a long day flying via Amsterdam we’ve finally arrived and in good missionary fashion we immediately went out to try the local cuisine and ended up in Dominos!