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Originally from Panama, Deacon Pedro Guevara Mann came to Salt + Light Television after being the artistic director for World Youth Day 2002, meaning that he was responsible for all the artistic programming. He has a background in the performing arts: theatre, music and dance, holds a B.F.A. from York University and has been working with young people since he was a teenager. For eight years he was a youth worker and job coach at Covenant House, where he developed a passion for serving the most vulnerable and the voice-less. He has also been a youth leader with the Children's International Summer Villages and Confirmation retreat facilitator for many groups.

Deacon Pedro has been a music minister for over 25 years. He directed the Children's Choir at Our Lady of Lourdes in Toronto for many years and most recently played with the 7pm Youth Group at St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in Newmarket, Ont. Deacon Pedro is also a dynamic youth speaker and workshop facilitator, having been to many schools for various talks. His most popular topics have to do with love, sex, relationships and marriage (as he loves JPII's Theology of the Body). Other topics include vocations, and the culture and media.

Deacon Pedro is the producer/director for Abraham's Tent (2012), Ends of the Earth (2009), A People of Life (2008), Turning the Tide: Dignity, Compassion and Euthanasia (2007); Lives in the Balance (2006); INRI (2006); Thank You, John Paul II (2005). He is also the producer of In Your Faith (2004, 2010), as well as many Catholic Focus episodes, and the concert series Openings. He is the producer and host of The Salt + Light Hour for the Catholic Channel on Sirius XM Radio, coordinates SLRadio and also produces and hosts Perspectives: The Weekly Edition, every Friday on S+L TV.

On May 26, 2012 Pedro was ordained a Permanent Deacon for the Archdiocese of Toronto. Deacon Pedro is at Holy Martyr's of Japan Parish in Bradford, Ont. and lives north of Toronto, with his wife and their two sons.

I don't know why, but this World Youth Day, I've been thinking a lot about the Cross. It is partly because the Cross is the symbol of WYD (very clearly displayed as the WYD Cross). But there are other reasons. I began this journey reflecting on the adventure of walking alongside Jesus  hoping to encounter Jesus. At some point in that journey, we are bound to encounter the Cross.

How fitting: we set off on our journey to Rio on the Feast of St. Bonaventure, literally “bona aventura” or good adventure. That’s what World Youth Day is: an adventure in faith. I wonder if that’s what the disciples were thinking as they made their way down from Galilee to Jerusalem with Jesus for that fateful Passover.

WYD Blog

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WYD PhotoBlog

  • Jean's Photo Diary
    August-1

    July 26, 2016: The shrine of the Black Madonna was opened to World Youth Day pilgrims so that they could venerate the miraculous image up close. (Photo by Jean Ko Din)


    Follow our reporter Jean Ko Din as she photographs her journey to Krakow, Poland for the 2016 World Youth Day.