ATLANTA—The top shelf in Khristina Followell’s office is covered with World Youth Day memorabilia, and the memories have never left her heart.

Followell, 36, has attended three World Youth Days—Denver in 1993, Rome, Italy, in 2000 and Toronto, Canada, in 2002. The former parishioner of Good Shepherd Church in Cumming now lives in Knoxville, Tenn., with her family, but said that her World Youth Day experiences had a profound effect on her faith life.

The World Youth Day cross arrives at the airport in Sydney, Australia, July 1. The cross was welcomed by the Australian prime minister, church leaders and youth. World Youth Day will be held in Sydney July 15-20, 2008. (CNS photo/Brendan Read)

“Growing up in rural Forsyth County, North Georgia, us Catholic kids in the northern Forsyth County School System were few and far between,” she said. “We were questioned about our faith a lot, prayed for our salvation by fellow classmates and their parents, and ridiculed for believing what we did.”

But her first World Youth Day changed her outlook.

“Attending our first WYD in Colorado made being Catholic truly something bigger, maybe even more real. It was something so awesome to be a part of that I remember thinking, ‘Wow, my friends are really missing out on all this,’” she said. “Trying to explain it to everyone when we got home, wow, that was difficult, but it made me more proud of my faith, more rooted.”

Like many who’ve attended past World Youth Days, Followell’s heart was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the young pilgrims attending the celebration with Pope Francis July 28. For millions of young Catholics around the globe—including those from the Archdiocese of Atlanta—the lasting impact of these experiences have stayed long past the post-trip jet lag.

Lisa Wheeler, 43, a parishioner of St. Peter Chanel Church in Roswell, has attended four World Youth Days. Her first—and most memorable—was the 1997 celebration in Paris.

“I was a youth minister and had just gotten married. Less than six weeks later we left for France and a three-week pilgrimage with our youth group culminating in Paris for World Youth Day. It was such a sanctifying experience because it really made the sacrament we just received come alive,” she said. “We were young, eager Catholics, not much older than the young people we were charged with, and we were witnessing for the first time just how big and how alive the Church is. It made us excited for the future and what God had in store for us. From this very first World Youth Day, I knew we were being sent forth to do something great for God.”

Maureen Buckland, 30, said that attending the 2000 World Youth Day in Rome with a group from St. Pius X High School in Atlanta gave her a foundation for the future.

“As a senior in high school when I took this trip, I think it prepared me in a way for college, keeping my faith in the public world and higher education. I was by no means a perfect college student, but I always—even after making mistakes—felt God and my religion were there for me,” she said. “I think it was a prime time in my youth to have experienced such a religious event with the youth from all over the world; it is amazing to get together with millions of strangers, but we all had our Catholic faith in common.”

Nick Shaw, now a parishioner of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Woodstock, attended two World Youth Days as a youth leader from St. Catherine of Siena Church in Kennesaw. He said that the opening and closing liturgies of the celebrations are among his most precious memories.

“We averaged about 30 people in our parish group on both trips, and while we traveled to all the same sites, slept in the same hotels and ate at all the same places, each of us experienced the unique encounter God had in store all along,” he said. “To me, this was a manifestation of one of the most beautiful aspects of the life of the Church: how we could each experience all at once the universal and the individual relationship with God our Catholic faith lends us.”

For Wheeler, each of her experiences inspired her in a different way. After attending the 2002 celebration in Toronto, she returned to Atlanta to found a Catholic communications and public relations company, now known as Carmel Communications.

“After each World Youth Day, I would spend days reading and re-reading the pope’s words to the youth. There would always be some nugget or statement that I would embrace as my own commission for the years to come between World Youth Days,” she said. “Sixteen years and two popes later, I still look forward to each message, and I always find something that speaks to me and the particular way that I believe God wants to use me as a disciple. My husband and I just recently decided that we would start taking our oldest child to the World Youth Days. She will be just 7 years old for Poland in 2016, but we don’t want her to wait to see how big our Church is and how God intends to use her particular gifts for the good of the Gospel.”

Pope John Paul II embraces a young man during the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver. The pontiff instituted the international gatherings that attract hundreds of thousands of Catholic young people to a different city every two or three years. (CNS file photo)

Why is World Youth Day important for the life of the Church? Each of the former pilgrims said that these biennial celebrations are vital to forming the future of the faith.

“World Youth Day gives all attendees, young and not-so-young, a glimpse at just how big and amazing our Catholic faith really is, the energy and power behind gathering and sharing, praying and living. WYD gives us all the promise that our future generations will carry out our faith for years to come,” Followell said.

Wheeler agreed, citing Pope Francis’ words in Rio de Janeiro.

“I think World Youth Day is not just important to the Church, but critical. Our young people need to feel loved, and when they feel that the Church loves them, and God the Father loves them, they can more effectively bear witness to the truths Christ proclaimed,” she said.

“I think Pope Francis really summed it up best in Rio this year when he spoke to over 3 million people. He said, ‘Sharing the experience of faith, bearing witness to the faith, proclaiming the Gospel: this is a command that the Lord entrusts to the whole Church, and that includes you; but it is a command that is born not from a desire for domination or power but from the force of love, from the fact that Jesus first came into our midst and gave us, not a part of himself, but the whole of himself, he gave his life in order to save us and to show us the love and mercy of God. Jesus does not treat us as slaves, but as free men, as friends, as brothers and sisters; and he not only sends us, he accompanies us, he is always beside us in our mission of love.’”