Global Catholicism in Polish Scenography: The 2016 World Youth Day in Kraków
In July 2016 World Youth Day (WYD) – a global mass event organized every two or three years by the Roman Catholic Church and dedicated to young people – brought thousands of pilgrims to the city of Kraków (Poland) for one week. WYD, which was combined with an official visit by Pope Francis to Poland, is analyzed here as a complex religious-social event that mixes a traditional concept of ‘religious pilgrimage’ with a popular, mass-culture festival. Basing on ethnographic fieldwork – conducted before, during and after WYD – I will present various and varying attitudes of Kraków’s inhabitants towards the event. I will look at local voices but also at the ‘local scenography’ through an analysis of how the WYD organizers included symbolic capital of Kraków and its ‘Christian heritage’ within their agenda and shaped the event in religious terms.