It was the first World Youth Day held in either North America or an English-speaking nation.
The World Youth Day is an event for young people organized by the Roman Catholic Church.
The event took place in the context of the pope's sixtieth apostolic journey, on which, before reaching Denver, he had stopped in Jamaica and Mexico.
The program included a Stations of the Cross among the host city's skyscrapers; the vigil and final Mass took place inside Cherry Creek State Park, near the city of Aurora, about 15 miles (24 km) from downtown Denver.
[4] Archbishop Rembert Weakland of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee called Mother Angelica's comments "one of the most disgraceful, un-Christian, offensive, and divisive diatribes I have ever heard.