Portugal will be the second Lusophone country to receive World Youth Days (WYD) in 2022, after being in Brazil in 2013, in what was the first foreign trip of Pope Francisco.
[dropcap type=”background”]T[/dropcap]he Vatican announced today at the WYD closing Mass in Panama City that Lisbon will be the next city to host the largest event organized by the Catholic Church.
WYD is a gathering of young people from around the world with the Pope in a festive, religious and cultural atmosphere.
Elected Pope on March 13, 2013, succeeding Benedict XVI, Francis made his first apostolic trip abroad, precisely in a WYD four months later.
In Rio de Janeiro, at the welcoming ceremony, speaking in Portuguese, the pope said: “I do not have gold or silver, but I bring something more valuable: Jesus Christ. I come in his name to nourish the flame of brotherly love that it burns in every heart and I desire that my greeting reach all. ”
The Vatican’s head of state added that it was the desire of the providence that the first trip abroad to Latin America, from where he travelled to Rome, to the conclave that elected him pope.
In WYD, Francisco announced that he would return to Brazil in 2017, on the occasion of the three-year anniversary of the discovery of Our Lady of the Conception in Aparecida, which did not happen.
That year, he made a 24-hour trip to Fatima for the centenary of events in Cova da Iria and for the canonization of Blessed Francis and Jacinta Marto.
WYD is a gathering of young people from around the world with the pope in a festive, religious and cultural atmosphere that shows the dynamism of the Catholic Church.
They were created by Pope John Paul II (1920-2005).
