A Very Quick World Youth Day Update for July 28

TAURON ARENA, Kraków - I'm tapping this out on my phone right before Mass. Tauron, where the English speaking catechesis is being held, is a 15,000 seat sports arena that has been pretty much been filled to capacity the last two days. Yesterday we had a conference and Mass calibrated by Cardinal O'Malley from Boston. Today we had Cardinal Tagle of Manilla doing the honors. And this is only one of the English speaking sites, among a multitude of language groups represented here. All in all there are close to two and a half million pilgrims here is Kraków this week. 

I was hoping to get some real time posts uploaded now that I have access to wifi in the hotel we're staying at in the outskirts of Kraków. The schedule that gets us up early and back late makes it hard for this intrepid blogger to get that done. So just a few quick reflections.

Sunday we had a tour of the historic center of Kraków, with its medieval and renaissance architecture, mercifully left intact after Nazi occupation and communist oppression. Our tour guide, Marianna, took obvious pride in her Polish culture. This nation has been so tried over the centuries: partitioned, invaded, and manipulated by foreign powers. The Nazis in particular tried to erase Polish culture, literally outlawing the publishing of literary works and the putting on of plays. The communists went after faith, putting restrictions on the practice of Catholicism. But Poland has survived, with both faith and culture serving as the glue of their society. 

Tuesday we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, the infamous concentration camps where so many, most notably Eastern European Jews lost their lives. This will demand a full post, which I'm in the process of writing but will finish when I get home. My only reflection right now, is that when we processed this experience as a group many of us talked about the hate involved in such atrocities. Many were speaking in terms of hate crimes as we refer to them in the United States. There is something off about this. Hate is irrational, filled with passion. This wasn't that. This was methodical, scientific, efficient. It was the product of an evil ideology and deconstructed consciences. Passions can be calmed and irrationality can be worked through, though not easily. When someone is completely convinced that the evil they are doing is not only good, but a supreme good, based on logic, we are not dealing with passion. These atrocities were performed by cool, calm and measured minds. What can defeat such evil? Only the logic of the cross, the logic of love. That will be the theme my main post.

Mass is about to begin. More soon.