PILGRIMS BACK, TIRED BUT THRILLED

Three buses filled with a euphoric group of sunburned and tired teenagers pulled into the St. Mary's School parking lot at dusk Monday, ending a trip they said they will remember all their lives.

The 450 youths and chaperones from Southeast Missouri were among the more than 200,000 people who were in Denver last weekend to see Pope John Paul II on World Youth Day.

The Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese was one of those picked at random to join 80,000 invited to hear the pope say Mass on Saturday at a sports arena.

They described the sense of electric anticipation with the helicopters whirling overhead and the security people rushing about. "When he came in, the crowd just erupted," recalled Melissa Engelen, 17, of Leopold.

They cheered, "John Paul II, we love you," and he answered, "John Paul II, he loves you."

"It was like some superstar, like Michael Jordan was here," said 16-year-old Stephanie Koch of Piedmont.

The pope called for America's youth to live by the church's principles and to reject "widespread false morality."

Barry Rice, a 15-year-old from Dexter, thinks the event will have a long-lasting effect. "I think the ones who went to this day will hold closer to the church's teachings," he said.

They traded T-shirts and crosses with teenagers from other states and other nations, and were moved to see Catholics from around the world cheer wildly when the pope spoke to them in their own language. "Where are you from?" was the greeting on everyone's lips.

At a prayer vigil-slumber party for 200,000 Saturday night in a state park, Southeast Missourians taught the Hokey Pokey to people from Argentina, and saying the rosary somehow evolved into singing "La Bamba" with a group from Mexico.

Heat and dehydration from walking 10 miles to get to Saturday's gathering took a toll. There was hypothermia while camping out Saturday night, and a dust storm thrown in.

"Everybody was in a fragile state and didn't know it," said Rhonda Payton of Piedmont, one of the chaperones.

Some members of the Southeast Missouri contingent are still in Denver area hospitals. One previously was flown home. In all, 18,000 who attended the event were stricken with some sort of ailment.

"It was a great experience, but if I were to describe it to you, you would think it was awful," said 23-year-old Sarah Strohmeyer, director of youth ministries for the St. Vincent de Paul and St. Mary's parishes.

"...But to these kids there has been such growth. They have really become closer to the Lord."

Six of the nine members of Strohmeyer's Cape Girardeau family journeyed to Denver. Matt Strohmeyer, 18, sacrificed his last week before going off to college. "I wasn't sure I wanted to go last week," he said.

He has been fearful about the values of the people he will encounter when he leaves home. But he said those fears were lessened by seeing hundreds of thousands of teenagers gather peacefully and share the exhilarations and hardships of World Youth Day.

"Those are the people I'm going out to."