Children Flock to New Pope’s Youth Festival
Pope Benedict XVI hosted his first youth festival in St. Peter’s Square, drawing about 100,000 children and their parents to an afternoon of singing and break-dancing reminiscent of the gatherings inspired by the late Pope John Paul II.
Children in yellow and red T-shirts leapfrogged over one another on the steps of St. Peter’s as the late-afternoon ceremony got underway.
Benedict extended the invitation to children who had made their First Communion in 2005, the year John Paul set aside to celebrate the Eucharist.
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