Young Catholics ‘priced out’ of World Youth Day

Some young Catholics have complained that they were priced out of attending World Youth Day by a postcode lottery that has seen some dioceses charge more than twice as much as others for the pilgrimage to Krakow.

The pilgrimage organised by the Diocese of Lancaster cost £750, but the dioceses of Liverpool and Shrewsbury charged £1,200 per pilgrim.

Bill Dallman, chair of the University of Birmingham Catholic Society, wrote to Cardinal Vincent Nichols to complain of what he described as the “shocking” discrepancy in pilgrimage costs from diocese to diocese.

In a letter seen by The Tablet he said: “It upsets me that many young people will have been priced out of the pilgrimage purely based on their geographic location.”

Mr Dallman explained that some students at Birmingham University, unable to afford the £1,175 diocesan pilgrimage, went independently of their diocese and kept costs to £600. Krakow 2016 organisers offered a week-long package for about £145, excluding flights. Going only for the long weekend cost £65.

The Birmingham pilgrimage, like the £1,200 options from Liverpool and Shrewsbury, included hotel accommodation. Many young people at the gathering, however, slept on the floors of school gyms and church halls, which were among the official accommodation options provided by World Youth Day.

Hamish MacQueen, Youth director of the Diocesan Youth Service in East Anglia, where pilgrims paid £1,165 and stayed in a hotel, conceded that the price was “dreadful”. “We knew we could do it cheaper – the hotel was about £100 per night, because they hike up the prices – but we decided, based on the bishop’s view, to offer an experience that was reasonably comfortable,” he said.

“We took under-18s and wanted to make sure they got more rest than they would have done sleeping on a floor. This was actually the first year everyone made it to the Vigil on the last night; in the past at least one person has been too ill.”

Mr MacQueen said that most parishes were very willing to help committed young Catholics make it to the gathering.

In Middlesbrough an anonymous donor offered to cover half the cost of each pilgrim, reducing the price from £1,000 to £500.

The website of the English Dominicans noted that their cost of £650 was “cheaper than any English diocesan group we’ve seen”. The organiser, Fr Gregory Pearson, explained that they kept costs down by using official World Youth Day accommodation. “We have a few student chaplaincies and we were thinking of our students,” he explained. “We said, ‘we’re offering this cheap; it could involve some hardship.’ Many people like the penitential aspect.”

But Mr Dallman said: “Even a price of £750 would have been too much for me to afford.” He told Cardinal Nichols, “I am sure I am not the only one. Surely the Church must be able to do more to reduce the price?”

Cardinal Nichols acknowledged the email saying he would keep such concerns in mind.