“Let us accompany with thoughts and prayers those who have not been able to come because of conflicts and wars. There are many in the world. Thinking of this continent, I feel great pain for dear Ukraine, which continues to suffer a lot”. It is the appeal with which Pope francesco concluded the Mass Lisbon World Youth Day with one and a half million young people from 200 countries, 700 bishops and 10,000 priests. “Friends, – Bergoglio affirmed – allow me, an elder, 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. Through the Angelus we place the future of humanity in the hands of Mary, Queen of Peace. And, returning home, please continue to pray for peace. You are a sign of peace to the world, a testament to how nationalities, languages and histories can unite rather than divide. You are the hope of a different world. Thanks for this. After you!”.
During the days of the WYD, three Ukrainian Catholic bishops, who accompanied 500 young people to Lisbon, wanted to meet the Italian prelates to share a moment of prayer for peace and fraternity. “It was an opportunity to renew solidarity: there are many links with the Church in Italy. This comforts, gives hope and concrete answers. We continue to pray for an end to the conflict. There can be no peace, because without it there is only the end”, was the cardinal’s comment Matthew Maria Zuppi, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference and archbishop of Bologna. The cardinal was sent by the Pope to Kiev, Moscow and Washington precisely to work for peace in Ukraine. Zuppi’s next stop, as Bergoglio himself made official, will be Beijing to continue what the Pontiff has defined as “an offensive for peace”.
Francis announced that the next World Youth Day will be held in Only in 2027, while the Youth Jubilee will be held in Rome from 28 July to 3 August 2025. The Pope wanted to thank all the organizers of the WYD: the President of the Republic of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who welcomed and accompanied Bergoglio in his five days of stay in the country, the cardinal patriarch of Lisbon, Manuel Clemente, the cardinal prefect of the Dicastery for the laity, family and life, Kevin Joseph Farrell, and the current Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon, Americo Manuel Alves Aguiarwho will receive the purple in the consistory of 30 September 2023. “Special thanks – added Bergoglio – to those who watched over the WYD from above, that is, to the patron saints of the event: one above all, John Paul II, who gave life at the World Youth Days”.
Francis above all wanted to thank the real protagonists of the WYD: “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 best 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 yourselves, revive the experiences and the grace of these days, because – never forget this – this is reality, this is what you are. you: the holy people of God walking in the joy of the Gospel! I also wish to send a greeting – added the Pope – to the young people who have not been able to be here, but have participated in initiatives organized in their countries by the episcopal conferences and dioceses; I am thinking, for example, of the sub-Saharan brothers and sisters gathered in Tangier”.
In his homily, Bergoglio encouraged young people from all over the world: “To you, young people, who cultivate big dreams but often overshadowed by the fear of not seeing them come true; to you, young people, who sometimes think you can’t make it; 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 fight for justice and 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, precisely to you, young people, Jesus says: ‘Do not be afraid!’”.