John L. Allen Jr.
A World Youth Day pilgrim displays a cross near the Eiffel Tower during the 1997 gathering of Catholic young people in Paris. St John Paul II was pope, and over 1,200,000 youth from across the world filled the streets of Paris for the event. Photo: CNS file by Nancy Wiechec When World Youth Day opened in Lisbon, Portugal, it marked the latest edition of the most massively successful version of a “politics of identity” in organised religion today, a clear and indisputable way of proclaiming that Catholicism isn’t sliding toward extinction but remains alive and well. To be clear, organisers of World Youth Day always…
