The next World Youth Day will be held in Seoul, South Korea, in 2027. This was announced by the Pope at the end of the mass in Parque Tejo at the end of the WYD in Lisbon. Young Catholics from all over the world were first invited by the Pope to Rome where in 2025 the Youth Jubilee will be celebrated.
The Pope is at Parque Tejo for the closing Mass of World Youth Day. There are about one and a half million young people present, all of whom attended last night’s Vigil. The local authorities report it. In fact, the boys slept on the spot, as happens at every WYD vigil.
The Pope greets the WYD of Lisbon, the city, the authorities, the local Church, the young people who have arrived from all over the world. “Obrigado”, “thank you”, he said in the Angelus at the end of the Mass in Parque Tejo. In his thanks, Pope Francis also mentioned the Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa who in recent days has been present at all the events with the Pope. An “obrigado” from the Pope also to the cardinal patriarch of Lisbon Manuel Clemente who hosted the event. “It is obrigado to you, Lisbon, that you will remain in the memory of these young people as a ‘house of fraternity’ and ‘city of dreams'”. “Obrigado to the volunteers, to whom everyone applauds for the great service they have done” and “obrigado to all of you, dear young people! God sees all the good that you are, He alone knows what He has sown in your hearts. Please , keep it with care. I would like to tell you: remember it, fix the most beautiful moments in your mind. Then, when some inevitable moment of fatigue and discouragement arrives, and perhaps the temptation to stop along the way or withdraw into yourself, revive your experiences and the grace of these days”, added the Pope at the Angelus.
The Pope speaks to young people about the “light” that is needed in life. “Friends, we too need some flash of light that is hope, so many daily defeats”, he said in the homily of the mass at the Parque Tejo in Lisbon. The light that “came to illuminate the world is Jesus. He is the light that never sets and shines even in the night”. “I would like to tell you one thing – continued the Pope -: we do not become luminous when we put ourselves in the spotlight, when we exhibit a perfect image and feel strong and successful. We become luminous when, welcoming Jesus, we learn to love like him”.
The Pope invited young people not to be afraid of their fragility, their sense of inadequacy, because “the world needs you”. “To you, young people, who cultivate big dreams but often clouded by the fear of not seeing them come true; to you, young people, who sometimes think you can’t make it, that you aren’t capable, there is a little pessimism”, “to you, young people, tempted in this time to be discouraged, to judge yourselves inadequate or to hide your pain by masking it with a smile; to you, young people, who want to change the world, and it’s okay that you want to change the world, and fight for justice and for peace; to you, young people, who put your effort and imagination into it but it seems to you that they are not enough; to you, young people, whom the Church and the world need like the land of rain; to you, young people, who are the present and the future; yes, to you, young people, Jesus says: ‘Do not be afraid!'”.
At the Angelus, the Pope addressed a thought to the young people who “were unable to come” to WYD “because of conflicts and wars. There are so many in the world. Thinking of this continent, I feel great pain for dear Ukraine, which continues to suffer a lot. Friends, allow me, an old man, to share with you young people a dream that I carry inside: it is the dream of peace, the dream of young people who pray for peace, live in peace and build a future of peace”. “Coming home, please continue to pray for peace. You are a sign of peace to the world, a testimony of how nationalities, languages and histories can unite rather than divide. You are the hope of a different world” .
The Pope in Fatima, his silent pain for peace
(by the correspondent Manuela Tulli)
The Tagus estuary is a human carpet: over a million young people are at the vigil with Pope Francis in Lisbon’s Parque Tejo which, together with tomorrow’s mass, is the highlight of World Youth Day. Pope Francis’ day began with a visit to Fatima, the Marian sanctuary of Portugal. Here, at the feet of the Madonna, he brought his “silent and pained” prayer for peace, as reported by the spokesman Matteo Bruni who unraveled a small mystery of the morning. The Pope, who had included the stop in Fatima precisely because of his concern for the ongoing conflicts in the world, did not mention the word “peace” in his brief speech, nor did he make any reference to Ukraine and Russia. “The Pope told me that he prayed in silence and with pain for peace, these are his words”, he explained to journalists. But questions about health are inevitable, this time for eyesight because Francis on his trip to Portugal is often choosing to leave the papers of the speeches prepared to speak off the cuff.
“It’s not a vision problem,” Bruni said. It was the Pope himself who referred to the desire to “not strain your eyesight” yesterday morning. But the Vatican spokesman explains that on that occasion “there was a lighting problem that reflected off the glasses, making it difficult to read”. This morning in Fatima she set aside the text of the speech and that of the prayer that she had prepared “not for a problem of sight, but for a pastoral choice towards the people who were faced with it”. At the sanctuary of Fatima there were some prisoners and many sick and disabled, even seriously. To those who ask him if he has memory problems, Bruni replies: “it’s not a theme”. Finally, to those who ask if the Pope is tired, the spokesman replies to journalists: “Like you, how tired you are on an intense journey”.
The Pope returns to peace in the early afternoon with a tweet in which he also addresses a prayer to Our Lady of Fatima (who today he renamed, for her concern, ‘Our Lady of haste’): “With the heart of children we consecrate our lives to you , every fiber of our being, all that we have and are, forever. We consecrate the Church and the world to you, especially countries at war. Get us peace. You, Virgin of the Way, open roads where it seems there are none. You, untier of knots, loosen the tangles of selfishness and the snares of power”, the Pope prayed. The cardinal president of the CEI Matteo Zuppi also spoke of peace from Lisbon, who is also the Pope’s envoy for the peace mission and which will soon go to Beijing. At ‘Casa Italia’, the headquarters of Italian pilgrims to the WYD, he received the Ukrainian bishops of the Greek-Catholic Church Ivan Kulyk and Maksym Ryabukha and of the Catholic Church of the Latin rite Oleksandr Yazlovetskiy who accompany 500 young people.
“It was an opportunity to renew solidarity: there are many ties with the Church in Italy. This comforts, gives hope and concrete answers. We continue to pray to end the conflict. There can be no peace, because without it there will be It’s just the end,” Zuppi stressed. Finally, a note for the news: this morning in Fatima there was a strange grey-pink sky to welcome the Pope. It was the effect of a fire that had affected the Castelo Branco forest the day before, a locality 150 kilometers from the Marian shrine. But the wind carried the ash up to the Little Chapel of the Madonna and many vehicles from the fire brigade were stationed in Fatima, ready to intervene if necessary.
breaking latest news © Copyright ANSA