Catholic News Service reports that Pope Benedict XVI has chosen the theme for the next three WYD celebrations. The next international gathering will be held August 16-21, 2011 in Madrid, Spain. According to a Dec. 16 press release, the theme for that event will be "Rooted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith," taken from the second chapter of St. Paul's Letter to the Colossians.
The 2009 and 2010 celebrations, which take place on a diocesan level, will have the themes: "We have set our hope on the living God," and "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
The pope apparently chose all three times ahead of time "to help build a spiritual itinerary" that will lead to the 2011 International WYD in Madrid.
-- Tim Drake
