TORONTO – Officially, the top pilgrim traveling from Maine to Canada for World Youth Day 2002 with Pope John Paul II is the Rev. Robert Vaillancourt, but his fellow pilgrims just call him Father Bob.

The pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Madawaska since March, Vaillancourt is undoubtedly the most experienced pilgrim on the trip. For almost 20 years, the 48-year-old priest has led an annual pilgrimage from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

But when smoke filled the back of the bus Monday morning and forced passengers to evacuate just 21/2 hours after the journey started, even the usually unflappable priest broke into a sweat. So did his fellow travelers, who discovered just east of Dixfield that they would spend the first leg of their journey without air conditioning.

“It’s beginning to be a pilgrimage,” he announced, once the more than 40 passengers had settled back in their seats as the temperature edged upward. “It’s never easy. It’s appropriate that there are great sacrifices, but they bring incredible graces. So, we place ourselves in your hands, Lord.”

World Youth Day 2002 will be the Lewiston native’s third trip to see the global youth event started by Pope John Paul II soon after his election in 1978. This year, Vaillancourt is leading 315 teen-agers and young adults and another 35 parents and chaperones from Maine parishes to Toronto.

Almost 200,000 pilgrims from 150 countries have registered to attend World Youth Day in Toronto. Pope John Paul II arrived Tuesday in the city and, helped by an aide, walked down the ramp of the jet that brought him to the site of the international festival.

The pontiff thanked Toronto for welcoming the pilgrims, calling the event crucial for preserving hope in the young.

“Too many lives begin and end without joy, without hope,” he said. “Young people are coming together to commit themselves, in the strength of their faith in Jesus Christ, to the great cause of peace and human solidarity.”

Vaillancourt, who has led groups to similar events in Denver and Paris, led retreats in March and June to help Maine’s young Catholics understand what the pilgrimage would be like.

“At the retreats, I wanted to prepare them and let them know what a pilgrimage is all about,” the priest explained Monday afternoon as the unair-conditioned bus headed toward a one-night stop in Montreal. “We worked on journaling and how to properly reflect on the day’s events while they are there. I urged them to be attentive to the journey God wants them to take within as they take the outward journey.”

Seth Gopel of Bridgton is anxious to begin both those journeys. The 18-year-old is seriously considering becoming a priest and views Vaillancourt as a mentor. Gopel said that no matter what hardships the Toronto trip brings, “being with Father Bob is an awesome experience.”

“He’s really helped me grow spiritually,” Gopel said. “I’m able to take a lot of the things that he’s taught me and just spread it, so being able to do this trip with him gives me another opportunity to see what I have to aim for.”

While his title on this trip is spiritual director, Vaillancourt also functions as a tour guide, cheerleader, water boy – reminding everyone to drink lots and lots of water – and dispenser of vital information, such as room assignments and meal times. The priest is acutely aware of the atmosphere in which this year’s WYD is taking place.

He knows firsthand the pain the abuse scandal has caused Maine’s Catholics. He was abruptly removed from a parish in Bridgton this spring and sent to St. Thomas Aquinas after the Rev. John Audibert was removed by Bishop Joseph J. Gerry for allegedly sexually abusing minors.

As the pilgrimage left Bangor on Monday morning, Vaillancourt and those on his bus prayed for the survivors of sexual abuse by priests as well as for Audibert, the Rev. Michael Doucette and the Rev. Leo Michaud, the three Maine priests removed from their parishes after sex abuse allegations surfaced.

To help get people into the pilgrim mindset, Vaillancourt celebrated Mass on Monday afternoon at St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal after a tour of the shrine on Mount Royal. The oratory was founded in the early 1900s by Alfred Bessette, who joined the congregation of Holy Cross and became Brother Andre, working as the porter at Notre-Dame College.

As a boy, Vaillancourt made pilgrimages to L’Oratoire Saint-Joseph with his family. When his grandmother lay dying at the age of 96, she told Vaillancourt that Brother Andre himself touched her head when she visited the shrine as a child. About 10 years ago Brother Andre was beatified, the final step before being canonized a saint, the priest explained.

“If your hearts are really open and you’re really in the pilgrim mode, Jesus Christ will invite you to risk walking with him,” Vaillancourt said at Mass. “I dare you to walk closer to the Lord this week.”

Young Catholics will spend Wednesday and Thursday sightseeing and visiting Toronto churches. They will welcome the pope at 5 p.m. Thursday and spend Friday walking the Stations, or Way of the Cross, along College Avenue, one of Toronto’s major streets.

After a morning Mass with Gerry on Saturday, they will walk about 10 miles to Downsview Lands where they will participate in an overnight vigil and celebrate Mass with the pope.