Over 50,000 Altar Servers Gather in Rome for Yearly Pilgrimage

Besides liturgical celebrations, the altar servers will also participate in a variety of activities over the week, including cultural visits to museums and social exchanges with other international pilgrims as well as music, film, and drama festivals. A center providing vocational pastoral support and counseling has also been set up in a location near St. Peter’s Square.     

In an interview with EWTN News, altar server Tobias Kiss from Romania said he is especially excited to see Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Square on Tuesday as well as meet other altar servers, priests, and pastoral workers from different countries throughout the five-day international pilgrimage.

“What we all have in common is the fact that we serve at the altar. We like serving at the altar because we’re close to the Lord Jesus. We get to be in touch — in sync — with everything that happens at church. We are a community of the soul, of a belief,” Kiss told EWTN News.

Approximately 35,000 out of the 50,000 registered pilgrims are from dioceses spread across Germany. President of the Commision for Youth Ministry of the German Bishops’ Conference Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Wübbe said he was pleased about his country’s high youth participation this year.

“There is a long tradition of ministry in [German] parishes and so there are a lot of young people who do this in the parish,” the bishop told EWTN News.

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Wübbe said altar servers are also a “beacon of hope for the whole Church in Germany,” especially during a time when it is often difficult for young people to be a witness of faith or be actively present at church.

Other countries represented at this year’s pilgrimage include Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Ukraine.