With Anson’s help, the Australian priest leads a group of 64 young people. They all agree: the Portuguese don’t know how to drive.
Bony Abraham traveled some 17,000 kilometers from Queensland, Australia, to Lisbon to celebrate World Youth Day live. But he is not alone: he has brought a group of 64 pilgrims aged between 18 and 32. Also helping him is Anson Anthony, 36, another priest from the same country. Together, they are leading Jesus Youth Australia.
Being at this religious event has been a whirlwind of emotions. When walking down the street, the group sometimes feels overly judged by the Portuguese they meet. “I think people are a bit scared and not ready for this. But we shake hands and give hugs to show that we’re just here to have fun,” the 37-year-old Australian tells NiT.
The pilgrims arrived in Lisbon last Thursday, July 27. The journey was very long, but everyone coped well – their excitement to see a new country and participate in this religious event was all the motivation they needed. “We flew from Australia to Dubai, which took about 14 hours. Then it took us about eight hours to get to Lisbon.”
Although they have landed in the capital, they are all sleeping in a parish in Odivelas. “Some spend the night in schools or with host families.
The sky was dark by the time we spoke to Bony on Tuesday, August 1. Still, the priest and his group took the opportunity to have some fun around Lisbon. “We are currently outside the Atrium Saldanha. We are singing and dancing with people”. Laughter and different languages are heard in the background.
It was this same spirit of community that made the Australian seek out religion. “I grew up in a Catholic family and always did what my parents told me to. However, at some point I drifted away from the faith a bit.”
In 2006, when he was at university, a friend invited him to a Catholic youth group. “I enjoyed the company and that sense of belonging. That’s when faith started to make sense to me. It opened a path for me and gave me hope. I met Jesus and felt that he was alive through me and in my life,” she confesses. Her values did not change drastically, she just learned to respect others more.
The next nine years were spent studying to become a priest, a dream that came true in 2015. “I felt a great need to serve God and his people,” he says.
Throughout his life, Bony has participated in two World Youth Days. The first was in 2008, in Sydney, in his home country. The second was in 2013, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Now, in Lisbon, he says everything seems more or less the same.
“All these events are similar, with lots of music, dancing and people getting to know each other,” he explains.
Still, the group of Australian Catholics have been in Portugal for about five days, but say they have already been through “a lot”, as they are keen to stress. “The fact that it is a pilgrimage brings a lot of pain. We have to stand in line in the sun for hours to get food. You have to wait in the heat to get a cab or the train, and then you have to walk to the events because there is no access.”
This Monday, for example, Bony walked 40 minutes between the Catholic University and Eduardo VII Park. “It was good because I also met new people along the way.”
Lisbon isn’t exactly living up to expectations – but that’s because Bony had a totally wrong idea of the city. “I thought it would be like London, Sydney or New York. But it’s not.” If he had to offer any criticism, it would be that “people drive a bit crazy and not very carefully, especially the taxi drivers.”
On the other hand, there have been several positives on this trip. The food, for example, has completely won over everyone in their group. “The young people go more for the sweets. I also really liked the pastel de nata, but I’m trying to experiment with different dishes. I like the ones with chicken and rice,” she says. For breakfast, she always eats a sandwich with ham and cheese.
On a daily basis, they try to opt for the restaurants that have discounts for World Youth Day pilgrims. However, this is not always possible due to the huge queues that form. When this happens, they opt for the traditional Lisbon tascas.
Sightseeing aside, Bony and his friends watched the WYD opening mass live at Eduardo VII. “It was fantastic to see all the young people singing together. I joined them, of course. When you are there, you feel that you are just one body called ‘church’. This brings together people from all over the world, with different accents and languages, different ethnicities, rich, poor. We are all together.”
Now he can only count the minutes until he can see Pope Francis on August 6. And she looks forward, but with less enthusiasm, to the vigil that will take place at night the day before. “We will all sleep on the floor and the next day we will go to the mass given by the Pope.”
For Bony, World Youth Day is not just an event where he can practice his religion in the midst of hundreds of thousands of people on the same values and principles. It is also a way to “awaken Catholicism in younger people”, something that is lacking in his parish (called St Mary’s).
“I have a very good community, but most of the people are elderly. There are no kids.”
Click through the gallery to see some photos from the first day of WYD in Lisbon.
