Young Mainers’ spirit ‘energizes’ Bishop Gerry

TORONTO – Bishop Joseph J. Gerry left behind the sex abuse scandal that has dominated the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland for the past six months to celebrate Mass on Saturday morning at a hotel with more than 200 young people and their adult leaders who traveled to Canada for World Youth Day 2002.

Afterward, small groups of teen-agers clustered excitedly around the balding bishop. With a broad grin, Gerry bowed his head, placed his hands over their heads and blessed them as they went off to complete their weeklong pilgrimage to see Pope John Paul II.

Alan Cyr, a chaperone from St. Bruno’s Catholic Church in Madawaska, whipped out a huge Canadian flag and asked both Gerry and Auxiliary Bishop Michael R. Cote to sign it, after he pointed out where a cardinal had already left his signature. Cyr and the six teen-agers from the church asked World Youth Day participants from around the world and the people of Toronto to sign it as a souvenir.

The bishops did not travel to Toronto just to see the pontiff and celebrate Mass. They wanted to hear about World Youth Day firsthand from Maine’s young Catholics.

Before beginning the service, Gerry asked them to describe their first glimpse of the pope at the welcoming ceremony Thursday.

“Seeing those handicapped kids in their wheelchairs dancing to the music was amazing,” said Marie Lint, 17, of Old Town. “My brother is physically and mentally handicapped [but does not use a wheelchair] and he is an altar server at my parish.

“Seeing them up there with the pope was like seeing [her brother] up there. … People think that handicapped people can’t understand their faith, but, like my brother, they do know God and they do understand him,” said Lint, who attends Holy Family Catholic Church in Old Town.

Like most of the clergy in Toronto for World Youth Day, Gerry focused his short sermon on the theme of this year’s event: “You are the salt of the earth … You are the light of the world.” He then urged the young Catholics from Maine to participate in the sacrament of reconciliation, or confession, another issue emphasized at the event.

Gerry said Saturday that he is encouraged that so many young Catholics between the ages of 16 and 35 – more than 300, plus chaperones – made the pilgrimage.

His description of what he takes away from such encounters with teen-agers was similar to the 82-year-old pope’s.

“Whenever I am at youth gatherings, I find that their presence and spirit energizes me,” said Gerry, 73. “It makes me feel excited about the future of the church. … When Bishop Cote and I see the Holy Father with youth, we see him use muscles we didn’t know he could still use. And when we are with them, we find that we use muscles we don’t usually use.”

After the Saturday Mass, as the young pilgrims helped each other put on their backpacks, Gerry referred to the past six months, when three priests were removed from Maine parishes for alleged sexual abuse, as a “process of purification” for the church.

“I believe that once we get through this [period] in the church’s history, the faithful will end up having more confidence in the church and what Christ is trying to do through it,” said a beaming Gerry as he gestured toward the young people leaving the hotel room.