Today was a long day with a lot of traveling.
We headed out after breakfast to listen to Archbishop Mark Coleridge give the morning catechesis. When we arrived at the Church it w already packed out but we managed to find some space on the side. After the animators did their job they welcomed the speaker, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York. His talk was good but again it was very American in style - all hale and good fellow. Nothing wrong with that but more pizazz than we are used to.
The mass was crowded but a good celebration and afterwards we headed out to Retiro Park where we stayed for the rest of the afternoon - some small group work and then time to wander off and see some of the exhibits that were scattered around the park.
The park is close to Cibeles Square where the Pope was welcomed to World Youth Day this evening. By the time he arrived the whole place was crowded out and, although we managed to glimpse some of the arrival on the big screen, it was simply a sea of people that moved together as it was almost impossible to move individually.
After the Pope had left we waited as people headed off for a comfort stop before commencing the walk back to our accomodation. I stayed with two of the group who had injured feet, one an ankle, the other a stubbed toe. It took us quite some time and while I attempted to find a taxi we had to walk all the way back, arriving too late to get a meal at our meal centre so we headed off and got salads from one of the local food shops.
It is now extremely late and time for bed - the others have just arrived back from dinner and it is 11.30pm and the atmosphere across the road is rocking so it will be a hard night to sleep.
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