COLOGNE, Germany, AUG. 25, 2005 (Zenit.org).- A program on the Bible enabled tens of thousands of participants at World Youth Day to rediscover Scripture, including unbaptized youths from Asia.
The title of the program offered in the Bürgerhaus Stollwerck, 15 minutes from the Cologne Cathedral, was «Feel the Power of the Word.»
Last Wednesday and Friday, invitations to biblical meetings were issued in the five official languages of World Youth Day, as well as in Portuguese and Chinese. It was the only World Youth Day activity specifically offered in Chinese, the reason why it attracted many Asians.
Sixty-five members of the Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity and six volunteers gave talks on the Bible, offered musical presentations and dialogued with visitors.
On arrival, visitors went to a room in their language which evoked the Nativity scene. Each room also had a piece of linen with the crucified Christ in the center, a Bible, an image of Mary and the biblical theme of the 20th World Youth Day: «We Have Come to Worship Him» (Matthew 2:2).
In collaboration with the associations Aid to the Church in Need, Abba-Stiftung, Alpha-Kurs and the International Bible Society-Stuttgart, a special edition of Luke’s Gospel was printed.
A total of 35,000 copies of the Gospel were given away.
The Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity, founded by a diocesan priest in 1963, is a Vatican-approved community made up of consecrated men and women, and married couples, who are dedicated to prayer and the preaching of the Word of God.
It is present in dozens of countries.
