Peter Scanlan

More than 60 young people from all over North Cork attended the 21st annual Youth Festival in Medjugorje recently. The trip was organised by Tom Dennehy who has been taking young people to Medjugorje for many years. The main theme this year was: ''Good Master, what shall I do to inherit the eternal life?'' and ended with Holy Mass at 5am on the top of the Cross Mountain attended by almost 70,000 young people from countries worldwide. Another 50,000 who for one reason or another, were unable to attend, were following it on the internet, where it was transmitted live in five different languages

Every evening, there were more than 500 priests concelebrating Mass. Besides priests, there were various other speakers this year, from regular lay people with ordinary experiences, to scientists, academics and bishops. Large queues waited patiently for confession where anything up to 80 or 90 priests were on hand. On Tuesday, August 3 there was the Procession through the parish with large, hardly countable numbers of eager participants.

The programme was simultaneously translated in various world languages: English, German, Italian, Korean, Russian, Spanish, French, Slovakian, Czech, Arabian, Chinese, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian, Polish and Hungarian, while some smaller language groups translated into their own languages as well.

The international orchestra and choir, conducted by Professor Damir Bunoza, made the whole programme more beautiful with their song and music. This year is also special because of two large video screens placed beside the outdoor altar so young people could follow the whole programme in a much better way.

There were dozens of accredited press members present who were reporting for their own radio or TV stations, one of the greatest being BBC, who were also filming their own documentary.

Next year's Youth Festival will be held in the first week of August.