Celebrate World Youth Day With a Craft

August 16, 2011 By

Today is the first day of World Youth Day 2011! Whoo Hoo! I have such a soft place in my heart for WYD since attending WYD 2002 in Toronto, Canada. We rode on a bus, slept in church gyms all the way there and back, saw Pope John Paul II, met Catholics from all over the world, ate some seriously weird food, carried everything we brought for more than 8 miles, slept in a field, attended a Papal Mass, and made memories to last a lifetime!

As a teenager, I attended Catholic youth conferences at the diocesan, state, national, and world levels. I know that these conferences made me the Catholic that I am today!

World Youth Day, 2002
World Youth Day Group
 
Everywhere we went there were flags, flags, and more flags!
World Youth Day Flags
 
Everyone was proudly waving their country and state flags everywhere you went! It was beautiful! On the way walking back to the church one night, I stumbled on a Canadian hot dog vendor that was selling World Youth Day trinkets, and he had  Papal flags. I thought “Even though we are all here from so many different countries, we are all united as Catholics under the Papal flag!” So I haggled with him and I bought one. 🙂
 
How to Craft a Papal Flag for World Youth Day
Papal Flag with pipe cleaner, making tape, and clay
 
Materials Needed:
 
  • Markers
  • Masking Tape
  • Pipe Cleaner
  • Clay
Start by educating yourself a little bit about the Vatican (aka Papal) flag. The Vatican is one of the only countries in the world with a square flag! The yellow and white bands symbolize gold and silver. The keys on the flag represent the keys to the Church given to St. Peter by Jesus. You can also see the papal tiara on the flag, and a red cord connecting the keys.
 
Start by cutting your pipe cleaner into a small flag pole. Wrap a piece of masking tape around the flag at the top.
 
Pipe Cleaner and Masking Tape
 
 Once you stick the masking tape together, decorate with markers to be a simple Vatican flag design.
 
Masking Tape Papal Flag
 

 

Post continues after this brief information about the Catholic Icing Monthly Membership

Monthly Liturgical Membership

Catholic Liturgical Monthly Membership

Perfect for families! Each month you gain access to printable activity pages, crafts, home altar pieces, and more.
 
Never has living the liturgical year been so easy and affordable!
 
Finished Papal Flag Craft
 
Stick a small ball of clay at the bottom to hold your flag up. You’re all finished! 
 
Of course, you can make any flag this way. We also made some USA flags while we were at it. 
 
USA Flag Craft
 
And now to move on to the bragging (ahem) 
here are some pictures I took of John Paul II at World Youth Day!
World Youth Day
 
World Youth Day Pope John Paul II
 
These pictures are so old they were actually taken with film! Lol! 😉
 
World Youth Day 2011 is in Madrid, Spain! 
Say a prayer for all the youth attending! 🙂
Papal Flag on Globe
 
 
And here is a seriously random picture of myself under a sign somewhere in Canada that said “Lacy”. 🙂
Lacy Sign
 
For nostalgia’s sake, I leave you with a piece of the theme song from World Youth Day 2002: “The Light of the World, Christ is our Light, We shine with His brightness, the reflection of His Light from day to day!” That song was sung so much that week that I can actually still sing it in French! (Although I would NOT attempt to type it in French- lol!) Have any of you ever been to World Youth Day?
 

You can find even more Papal resources for kids here! This post includes Pope printables, crafts, snacks, and more. 

More Pope Resources

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