WelCom June/July 2023
The Holy See Press Office has released Pope Francis’ schedule, on 6 June, for the 2023 World Youth Day, which will take place from 1 to 6 August 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal.
Over 400,000 young people have registered to take part in the event. In a video message released early June, the Holy Father said the desire of these young people to travel to the Portuguese capital later this year fills him with joy.
It will be the fourth World Youth Day which Pope Francis will preside over, having previously done so in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2013; Krakow, Poland, in 2016; and Panama City, Panama, in 2019.
World Youth Day in Lisbon will be the 37th, and was originally scheduled to take place in the Portuguese capital in 2022, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For this year’s WYD motto, Pope Francis has chosen a passage from Luke’s Gospel: ‘Mary arose and went with haste’ (Lk 1:39), which opens the account of the Visitation, when Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth following the angel’s announcement to the Blessed Mother that she would be the mother of the Son of God.
While he is in Portugal, the Pope will visit the Shrine of Fatima. It will be the second time as Pope that he will visit the Marian pilgrimage site, the destination of millions of pilgrims every year.
In Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three Portuguese children slightly more than 100 years ago, in what was then a poor farming village.
Source: Vatican News
