About 25 members of St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center are among the World Youth Day pilgrims who will be participating tonight in an all-night vigil in Toronto, Canada.

The vigil, at a former airfield north of Toronto, will lead up to a Sunday morning Mass conducted by Pope John Paul II. The Mass is expected to draw half a million people, most aged 16 to 35.

The Rev. Vince Krische, right, of St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, 1631 Crescent Road, gives a blessing to the young adults who are traveling to Toronto for World Youth Day. The group of 14 left Lawrence Wednesday afternoon and will stay at a campsite about 40 minutes from the international festival.

“How many chances do you get to see the pope,” said Eve Herrera, 26, a Kansas University graduate student majoring in clinical child psychology. ” But I imagine we won’t get too close (to him).”

A group of 19 St. Lawrence members left July 18 to travel by plane to Toronto, where they have been staying with Catholic families and participating in the weeklong World Youth Day activities.

Herrera and 13 other students purchased tickets for today and Sunday only. They left Wednesday afternoon in two minivans, planning to drive straight through from Lawrence to a camping ground about 40 minutes from Toronto.

Like Herrera, Brendan Cope, 21, a Kansas University senior studying microbiology, said he was looking forward to the Papal Mass on Sunday, but also was eager to participate in a re-enactment of the stations of the cross along a downtown Toronto street and visiting the shrine for Andre Bessette, a priest who is being considered for sainthood.

This year’s World Youth Day is expected to be the most lightly attended since John Paul initiated the event in the mid-1980s, according to the Associated Press. Millions attended similar events in the past in Rome, Paris and Manila, Philippines, compared to the almost 200,000 registered in Toronto.

Vatican Radio said Monday the low attendance could be attributed to the sex abuse scandals in the church since January and uncertainties about travel since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

But a lower attendance does not mean younger parishioners are turning away from the Catholic church. In fact, some religion experts say teen-agers and young adults are becoming more devout.

Herrera and Cope said that was true in their cases. A few years ago, both of them were searching for answers to questions they had about the theological reasons for certain Catholic beliefs and practices.

“After coming to college and graduate school, I started thinking about the church and why we do this or that,” Herrera said. “It all became clearer, and I started to have an understanding of what (the Catholic church was about).”

“It’s like going from a childhood faith to accepting a faith of your own,” Cope said.

In addition to the St. Lawrence groups, Corpus Christi Catholic Church and St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church each reported that at least one of the their parishioners was attending World Youth Day.

World Youth Day pilgrims sing Tuesday during the opening Mass at Exhibition Place.

Tuoraa Wilfrid, who lives in Tahiti, wears a newspaper hat showing a photo of Pope John Paul II.

The World Youth Day Cross is carried onto the stage Tuesday during the opening Mass at Exhibition Place in Toronto. Thousands gathered to open the event for young Catholics, which includes a visit by Pope John Paul II.