“We also want to experience different situations to form and develop our character, and thus get closer to God,” Father Marcin Napora told CNA before their departure.
The pilgrimage of the three cyclists began on July 8 with a Mass celebrated by the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Krakow, Robert Chrząszcz.
“Let this be an opportunity to bear witness to Christ, a new form of evangelization that perhaps appeals more to young people. ... Certainly, this is the moment when the Church uses you to go out into the world,” the bishop said.
The three pilgrims are expected to join, in Lisbon, the remaining 2,000 participants in the WYD from the Archdiocese of Kraków on July 31.
The trio of cyclists from Poland, made up of Father Marcin Napora (front) and young laypeople Bartłomiej Michlec and Marcin Kidon. Photo courtesy of Archdiocese of Krakow
‘A sporting and spiritual challenge’
The 17 young people who left Troyes, France, on July 16 will arrive earlier: The distance is shorter (900 kilometers, or 560 miles), and the group expects to arrive in time to participate in the Days in the Dioceses, the gathering of young people from all over the world that precedes WYD Lisbon 2023, which will be held in 17 dioceses across Portugal.
This group is made up of several young people from that French diocese, including a priest, a deacon and his wife, as well as a Colombian seminarian, four young Polish people who met during WYD in Krakow in 2016, and a young man from Hong Kong.
Over 10 days, they will cycle an average of 90 kilometers (56 miles), and will be welcomed every night in parishes, monasteries, and with families, sharing meals and enjoying conviviality and prayer until they reach Celorico de Basto, a village in the Archdiocese of Braga, Portugal, where they will join another 54 young people from the same diocese and 595 who will come from Toledo, Spain.
Marie-Liesse, one of the French pilgrims, said that “this trip is an opportunity to meet people and experience hospitality in France, Spain, and Portugal. It is a true pilgrimage that we experience by bicycle, and at the same time [is] a sporting and spiritual challenge.”