Back in Rio

Following the 2011 gathering in Madrid, the inventor of World Youth Day will also be present in a certain way in Rio de Janeiro; as of last Sunday Blessed John Paul II's relics are in the city of Rio.

They will be exposed in the major locations where World Youth Day will take place in Brazil. They were delivered by Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, during the Mass celebrated on July 7, in the Holy Sanctuary of the Miraculous Medal in the Tijuca district, in the northern part of the city.

For Pope Wojtyła, it is a return to Brazil's soil, where he was received four times: from June 30 to July 11, 1980; then on June 11, 1982; then from October 12 to 21, 1991; and finally from October 2 to 6, 1997, when Rio de Janeiro held the Second World Meeting of Families.

I bring to you, said the Cardinal, introducing the Ceremony, the blessing of Pope Francis, who will arrive here in a few days. For my part I am very happy to preside over this Eucharist for the consignment of the relics of Blessed John Paul II, who will soon be proclaimed a Saint.

During his stay in Brazil, Cardinal Ryłko also opened the exhibition In the Footsteps of Christ, with masterpieces from Italy and the Vatican, which is on display from July 9 to October 13 at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Rio. It is, as the Cardinal recalled, the eighth exhibition organized on the occasion of World Youth Day, and is concentrated on works by the most famous artists, painters and sculptors, ranging from the year 1400 to 1800. Original works, he said, which have never been seen before in a Latin American country.