“Like our Blessed Mother, she ‘went in haste’” to resolve the issue, Kombo said, referring to the WYD 2023 theme: “Mary rose up and went with haste.”
The priest said he can already see how the young people in his group, many of whom have never before traveled outside Liberia, are being renewed and strengthened in their faith.
When first approached by Bishop Anthony Fallah Borwah, president of the Liberian bishops’ conference, Kombo said he was reluctant to lead a pilgrimage to World Youth Day, citing the high cost and long distance.
Flights from Dakar, Senegal, to Lisbon, Portugal, cost the group more than $1,000 per person.
But after a few months of mulling it over, he explained, the local Church brought its financial and spiritual resources together to make it happen. The group also received financial assistance from Liberian families and the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life.
Now in Portugal, and enjoying meeting other young Catholics from around the world, the group is “all strong and trusting in God,” Kombo said. “He will be with us at the end.”
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency’s senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.