Cell phones were rare, clunky. So was sleep on buses, in gyms, church halls, Motel 6’s and the woods. The only “F bomb” I heard was “fellowship,” which helped in chasing restrooms, water, shade and where emergency crews took friends who’d collapsed.

Twenty-five years ago, hundreds of thousands of now mostly middle-aged pilgrims bubbled over Denver for Pope John Paul II’s World Youth Day visit. And in 1997, equally large huddles of Christian men --- jammed elbow-to-elbow, hoarse from Jesus cheers --- filled the National Mall in Washington and rallies in Fresno, Seattle, Denver and elsewhere.

More than 1.5 million people professed contrition, faith and personal commitment at these events during an extraordinary era of change, controversy and exposition in America’s religious traditions. It was a rich diet for me as a McClatchy Newspapers reporter.

Today, my enduring impressions are and optimism along with the wondering what’s become of those ordinary folks?

It’d be a tough slog trying to replicate those virtually untroubled public celebrations in our fraught and encumbered Dark Age of crime, terror and tragedy.

Our world reflects a 1960s Neil Young’s lyric, “This much madness is too much sorrow.” Our grass-roots public responses from campus to bema to legislature may well become icons, if not omens of certain, positive change.

The fervor of altar calls, public prayers and pledges are as profoundly energizing for some as they are memory-making spectacles for others. And whatever happens to fragmenting throngs after the popemobile takes flight is generally not the public’s business. But maybe it might help now to hear encouraging echoes of enduring external takeaways.

Getting that story is not always straightforward. In the Nineties, I wanted to write about a Fresno evangelical leader’s gritty career and profoundly challenged family. He shook it off: “If I get my reward in this world, I won’t get in the next.”

My exasperated retort: How will troubled people find role models if you won’t let them see examples? Years after we did the story, he ran for elected office.

So, what’s become of those who danced in the fountain near Colorado’s State Capitol, got drenched at the airport arrivals of the pope and President Bill Clinton and chanted “JP2, We Love You” in the sapping sun of mile-high Cherry Creek State Park?

And what of the multigenerational buffet of Christian men who prayed, sang, cried and hugged almost anywhere attached to the Promise Keepers crusade? Cheering sections jousted: “We love Jesus yes we do, we love Jesus, how about you?”

What happened over the years? I’m reminded of the challenges of Promise Keepers presenters:

“You’re responsible for the truths you heard.” --- Dr. Ed Cole of the Christian Men’s Network.
“You can’t stay too long in your last victory.” --- Indianapolis pastor Jeffrey Johnson Sr.

Surely some participants engage in faith and social justice groups. Others reconnect when CaringBridge brings blogs of health crises and prayer requests. I’ve not yet discovered belief-based versions of Sports Illustrated’s “Where Are They Now?”

Catholic World Youth Day recurs every two to three years, the next in Panama in 2019.The website of the downsized Promise Keepers national operation recently showed no content beyond a logo and “We’ll be right back!” It earned 1 star in a 4-star rating in 2017 from Charity Navigator, an independent financial evaluator.

In dicey times, prayerful people are invited among first responders. Whatever our belief system, I believe we are replenished by people united in positive, common purpose. Their stories of realization sustain us and bear retelling. Count me in.

Encouragement is found in "The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World" by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It quotes Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Catholic Benedictine monk, scholar and interfaith activist:

“It is not happiness that makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us happy. Every moment is a gift. There is no certainty that you will have another moment, with all the opportunity that it contains. The gift within every gift is the opportunity it offers us. Most often it is the opportunity to enjoy it, but sometimes a difficult gift is given to us and that can be an opportunity to rise to the challenge.”

John G. Taylor, a former Fresno Bee reporter and editor, is owner of JT Communications Company. Write to him at jtcommunicates@comcast.net.