During a meeting at the World Youth Day offices in Madrid, diplomatic representatives from various countries expressed their interest in collaborating to make WYD Madrid 2011 a success. Even the Haitian embassy, despite the country’s limited resources, has offered its assistance. Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid invited the diplomats from some 50 nations gathered at the meeting to collaborate in “this event that has sparked interest exponentially during its 25 years of history.” “The smooth relations with your embassies will help facilitate the preparation and execution of WYD so that it will be a great success,” he continued.

Haiti, despite its limited resources due to the ongoing recovery from this year’s earthquake, has offered to help with the event. “The Spanish have been so generous to us, that we want to give our total support to WYD,” said Yolette Azor-Charles, the Haitian ambassador. She said Haitian families in Madrid have been contacted and asked to help host young people. The coordinator of WYD 2011, Auxiliary Bishop Cesar Franco of Madrid, encouraged the diplomats to organize events as part of the Festival of Youth. “This is a worldwide, Catholic, universal event, and this should be reflected in the artistic and cultural representations from all over the world,” he said. WYD organizers estimate that one-third of the young people attending will come from outside Spain. As of now, nearly 150,000 have registered for the event.