By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
MADRID (CNS) – With a month to go before half a million young Catholics descend on Madrid, “there are an infinite number of small problems to solve,” said the executive director of World Youth Day 2011.
Yago de la Cierva said July 18 that he has “seven tons of rosaries I have to bail out of customs.” The U.S.-based Family Rosary Crusade had the rosaries made in Ecuador and sent to Madrid for distribution to participants at World Youth Day, Aug. 16-21.
But, de la Cierva said, it is a bit difficult to convince customs agents that seven tons of anything shipped internationally is meant as a gift and not a product to be sold and, therefore, taxed.
A produce company has promised to donate 25,000 pounds of bananas, but if organizers accept the fruit, “we have to find a way to dispose of all those peels,” he told reporters at a news conference in Madrid.
More importantly, he said, the organization is trying to select and get security clearance for the 50 young people who personally will welcome the pope to Madrid Aug. 18, and organizers also are deciding which five young people will have the honor of asking Pope Benedict XVI a question during the vigil Aug. 20…. …Read more
