DUNEDIN Planning for World Youth Day in 2011 is well under way in Dunedin diocese with the release this month of details of a confirmed 23-day European pilgrimage. Dunedin diocese World Youth Day co-ordinator Fr Vaughan Leslie said there is already strong interest from young people in the diocese in the pilgrimage.

The theme for the WYD in Madrid, Spain, from August 16-21, 2011, is: Planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in faith.

The pilgrimage will take in Rome, Assisi, Lyon, Lourdes, Madrid, Avila and Valencia.

Fr Leslie said the diocesan youth commission chose those places to help young people connect with the Faith. They are places with significance for the universal Church, Our Lady and the historic French contribution to Catholicism in New Zealand, he said.

The hope is that through this journey, those who take part will become strongly planted in their faith in Christ . . . and [through] the gathering with the youth of the world [and the Pope] in Madrid.

Fr Leslie said an experience like World Youth Day for a young Catholic will stay with them for the rest of their lives.