Editor's Note:

In 1984, Pope John Paul II gave the World Youth Day Cross to the young people of the world, with these words:


"My dear young people, at the conclusion of the Holy Year, I entrust to you the sign of this Jubilee Year: the Cross of Christ !

Carry it throughout the world as a symbol of Christ's love for humanity and announce to everyone that only in the death and resurrection of Christ can we find salvation and redemption."

Some years later, at the eighth World Youth Day in Denver, in August 1993, the late Holy Father said:

"Jesus has called each one of you to Denver for a purpose: You must live these days in such a way that, when the time comes to return home, each one of you will have a clearer idea of what Christ expects of you. Each one must have the courage to go and spread the Good News among the people of the last part of the twentieth century, in particular among young people of your own age, who will take the Church and society into the next century . . .

" . . . Follow the "pilgrim" Cross; go in search of God, because he can also be found in the heart of a modern city; recognize him in so many young people full of hope and noble ideals; feel the breath of the Holy Spirit among so many different races and cultures, all united in acknowledging Christ as the way, the truth and the life of every human being. "

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