By Mitch Schafer
IV Leader Columnist, Oct. 6, 2011
MUSINGS WITH MITCH
While we were all at school on Aug. 17, Claire Kunkel was
in Madrid, Spain. As Student Government President, Claire Kunkel was lucky
enough to get a chance to take a two and half week trip to Europe.
The main reason Claire spent two and a half weeks in Europe
was for World Youth Day. World Youth Day is a Catholic church pilgrimage that
2.5 million people attend every three years to listen to the Pope speak. The
location changes every three years, but a special exception due to the World Cup
being in 2014, it will take place in Rio de Janeiro in 2013.
“[The trip] was the best experience of my life.” Kunkel says.
Nine saints spoke on Tuesday and Wednesday and the Pope teased the audience
Thursday and Friday by driving through the city in his Popemobile. It was chaos
those two days, but the next two days would be even more chaotic. Claire, her
sister and the people she stayed with camped out in an airfield with 2 million
people to see the Pope speak the next day. She would go on to wait 5 hours with
an anxious crowd of people to listen to the Pope speak.
Before Claire spent a week in Madrid, she spent a week in
Lourdes, France, where she checked out the “healing waters”. This was a
significant part of her trip because it’s a big step in Catholicism, since there
have been 67 proven miracles that have taken place.
Other places Claire traveled while on this vacation were
Barcelona, Spain, Toulouse, Lisseux, and Paris, France. In Barcelona, she
checked out the Church of the Sacred Family and many other famous churches. In
France, she got to see the Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and
Napoleon Bonaparte’s gravesite, (there were restrictions that kept her from
seeing Napoleon’s actual grave).
After reading this, I can honestly say that I’m really
jealous of her for being able to miss school for almost two weeks while in
Europe. If you would like to know more information about her trip, visit her in
the student government office.