Pope Francis registers for World Youth Day 2023 at the end of his Angelus address on Oct. 23, 2022. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jun 22, 2023 / 10:45 am (CNA).
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A statue of St. Anthony in Lisbon’s Church of St. Anthony. / Credit: Anthony Johnson/EWTN
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A screenshot from Pope Francis’ May 4 video message to young people attending World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jun 6, 2023 / 11:45 am (CNA).
Pope Francis’ schedule for his trip to Portugal for World Youth Day 2023 was published by the Vatican on Tuesday.
During his Aug. 2–6 visit to the southern European country, the 86-year-old pope will split his time between WYD events and meetings with local government and religious leaders and other organizations.
He will also spend the morning of Aug. 5 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, about 75 miles northeast of Lisbon, where he will pray the rosary with sick young adults in the Marian shrine’s Chapel of Apparitions.
On the evening of Aug. 5, Pope Francis will participate in a vigil with World Youth Day participants at Tejo Park in Lisbon, a green space of more than 220 acres flanked by the Tagus River and with a view of Europe’s second-longest bridge, Vasco da Gama.
The park will be the site for WYD 2023’s main festivities, including Mass with Pope Francis on the final day.
Sunday Mass followed by a meeting with World Youth Day volunteers will be the pope’s final encounters before returning to Rome on the evening of Aug. 6.
The five-day trip will begin with a meeting with Portugal’s Catholic President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa followed by an address to government authorities, civil society members, and the diplomatic corps.
He will later meet with the country’s prime minister, António Costa, before praying vespers with local priests, bishops, seminarians, and consecrated men and women at the 16th-century Jerónimos Monastery, one of Lisbon’s top-visited sites.
On Aug. 3, Francis will meet students from the Portuguese Catholic University before traveling to the Cascais suburb west of Lisbon to spend time with young people from Scholas Occurentes, an international group that promotes education in poor communities.
That afternoon he will take part in his first World Youth Day event, a welcome ceremony at Eduardo VII Park.
On Friday, Aug. 4, Pope Francis will hear confessions, meet representatives of charity organizations, have lunch with young adults, and pray the Stations of the Cross.
The trip will mark Francis’ fourth World Youth Day after taking part in the international Catholic gatherings in Panama, Poland, and Brazil.
World Youth Day was established by Pope John Paul II in 1985. The weeklong celebration usually attracts hundreds of thousands of young people.
The theme of Lisbon’s World Youth Day, which will take place Aug. 1-6, is “Mary arose and went with haste.”
Pope Francis at the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 17, 2015. / Bohumil Petrik/CNA.
Rome Newsroom, May 22, 2023 / 04:40 am (CNA).
The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis will travel to Lisbon, Portugal for World Youth Day this August with a visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.
Pope Francis is set to participate in World Youth Day from Aug. 2 to 6 and is scheduled to visit Fatima on Aug. 5.
The Lisbon trip will mark the 86-year-old pope’s fourth World Youth Day after taking part in the international Catholic gatherings in Panama, Poland, and Brazil.
World Youth Day was established by Pope John Paul II in 1985. The weeklong celebration usually attracts hundreds of thousands of young people.
The event is typically held on a different continent every three years, with the presence of the pope. The Vatican previously announced that World Youth Day would be postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lisbon, the capital and largest city in Portugal, is about 75 miles from Fatima, one of the most visited Marian pilgrimage sites in the world where the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in 1917.
The theme of Lisbon’s World Youth Day, which will take place Aug. 1–6 is “Mary arose and went with haste.”
Pope Francis sent a video message to the teens and young adults preparing to attend this year’s World Youth Day earlier this month.
“To participate in WYD is something beautiful,” the pope said. “Prepare yourselves with that enthusiasm. Put hope in that. Have hope… because one grows a lot at an event like WYD.”
The Vatican has withdrawn a commemorative stamp for the 2023 World Youth Day. / Philatelic and Numismatic Office of the Vatican City State
Denver Newsroom, May 19, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
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A screenshot from Pope Francis’ May 4 video message to young people attending World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, May 4, 2023 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has sent a video message to the teens and young adults preparing to attend World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, in August.
“I’ll see you in Lisbon,” he said, according to an English translation of the message, delivered in Spanish. The message was published on the Vatican’s YouTube page on May 4, just under three months before the Aug. 1-6 international gathering.
“Dear young people, you are getting ready for World Youth Day,” Pope Francis said. “There are three months to go. I can imagine the things you must have on your mind… how you’re going to: make it happen, request your work or study permit, get what you need for your trip, so many concerns, but always looking towards that horizon, that dream.”
“To participate in WYD is something beautiful,” he said. “Prepare yourselves with that enthusiasm. Put hope in that. Have hope… because one grows a lot at an event like WYD.”
World Youth Day was established by Pope John Paul II in 1985. The weeklong gathering usually attracts hundreds of thousands of young people.
Pope Francis said the Portuguese capital would host the global Catholic gathering of young people at the closing Mass of the last international World Youth Day in Panama City in January 2019.
The event is typically held on a different continent every three years, with the presence of the pope. In 2020, the Vatican announced that World Youth Day would be postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lisbon, a city of 505,000 people, is about 75 miles from Fatima, one of the most visited Marian pilgrimage sites in the world. A report on “European Young Adults and Religion,” published in 2018, found that Portugal has one of the highest levels of weekly Mass attendance among young people in Europe.
In his video message, Pope Francis also shared “a secret” to preparing well for World Youth Day.
“To prepare well, it’s good to look towards your roots,” he said, encouraging young people to spend time with the elderly before the gathering.
“Many of you have grandparents. Visit your grandparents and ask them: ‘In your time did World Youth Day exist?’ — Surely not. ‘And what do you think I must do?’ Talk a little with your grandparents. They’ll give you wisdom.”
Logos of WYD Lisbon 2023 and the 2030 Agenda. / Credit; WYD and U.N.
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Pope Francis greets pilgrims near the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima during the 100th anniversary celebration of the Fatima apparitions on May 12, 2017. / LUSA Press Agency
Rome Newsroom, Jan 20, 2023 / 02:08 am (CNA).
World Youth Day in Lisbon, … […]
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