Evangelizing on the Streets of Rome!

Dear Donors,

Please help me serve the thousands of young people who will flock to Rome this summer for the youth jubilee and the canonization of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati! 

As a missionary, I will join a team of JP2 Project alumni to run an evangelization week culminating in the canonization of Frassati. We will be out in the streets of Rome by day and sleeping on gym floors by night. Together, we will serve as missionaries to invite thousands of pilgrims to adoration, sacraments, talks, fellowship activities, and service to the poor. 

My experience with the JP2 Project has helped me reorient my life and work toward Christ. Last summer, I studied abroad for two months with the JP2 Project in Krakow, Poland. While I read the philosophical work of John Paul II and walked in his footsteps, one theme from the pope's work spoke to my heart:

"Man is the only creature on earth whom God willed for itself ... At the same time, he is the only creature that can fully find himself only through a sincere, disinterested gift of self."

Our identity as human beings is rooted in our capacity to give and receive love. The moment we cease to love and to serve those God has entrusted to us, we cease to be human.

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati embodied this disinterested gift of self. John Paul II declared him a patron for World Youth Days and called him the "Man of the Beatitudes" for living out those blessings in his everyday life. Frassati grew up in a wealthy family in Turin, Italy, but spent his time as a young person in apostolate. He made prayer and the sacraments the center of his life, served the poor and the working class, and advocated for religious liberty during the rise of fascism in Italy. After contracting Polio while serving the poor in his community, Frassati died at the age of 24.

This summer, I want to follow the example of this great saint by helping the young people of the Church experience a personal encounter with Christ in Rome. At the end of the week, we will see this great saint canonized.

Thanks to our partnership with the Truth & Beauty Project, the JP2 Project will host events at the International Youth Center and Church of San Lorenzo, located next door to St. Peter’s Basilica, and home to the original World Youth Day cross that John Paul II entrusted to young people on Palm Sunday of 1984!

Sponsoring me for this week-long event helps make the Youth Jubilee in Rome a powerful encounter with Our Lord and a deepening of faith for thousands of pilgrims and young people of our universal Church. Every donation helps me get closer to Rome and my mission.

If you would like to donate via check, please make it payable to The John Paul II Project and include my name [Moira Gleason] in the memo line. Then, mail to:

PO Box 1022 Brighton MI, 48116.

Please note that all donations are tax deductible.

Thank you for your support and prayers! St. John Paul II and Blessed Pier Gorgio Frassati, pray for us!

Best,

Moira Gleason