During Mass in Santiago de Compostela, Spain on Sunday morning, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko made a call for young people to attend World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid. His words came in the culminating moment of another important youth pilgrimage in which thousands walked the “Way of St. James.” An initiative organized by Spain’s Catholic Church in preparation for the World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid brought 12,000 young people together from all over the country and around Europe for a youth rally after completing part of the Way of St. James. Activities for the Aug. 5-8 encounter included concerts, conferences, testimonies, adoration and even workshops on new media. For part of the celebration, there were three cardinals and 16 bishops on hand to give catecheses and lead Eucharistic celebrations and prayers.

One of these was the Polish president of the Pontifical Council for Laity, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, who presided over the closing Mass of the four-day celebration on Sunday morning at Santiago’s St. Lazarus stadium.

Reflecting on the meaning of the pilgrimage and the concluding initiatives in Santiago on Vatican Radio, he said the encounter sent out a “strong message to Spain and all of Europe, that the Way of St. James is not an historic ‘find’ from a remote past, but something alive, alive also today; it has so much to offer men and women and especially to the young people of today.”

The cardinal said that at Mass he called the large group “to make themselves witnesses of all they have experienced here in Santiago in these days.

“But,” he explained, “this isn’t enough.” In a second call he asked them to “become apostles, to encourage other young people, (and) not to forget the important appointment with the Successor of Peter, that will take place next year in Madrid.”

Hundreds of thousands of participants are expected for WYD 2011, to be held from Aug. 16-21 in the Spanish capital.

Cardinal Rylko told Vatican Radio that he concluded his message to youth on Sunday with an “Hasta luego en Madrid!”

“So,” he repeated, “see you in Madrid. Don’t miss out!”