With a click on a tablet in front of the crowd in St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis became the first person to register for the next World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal. Source: CNA.
The Pope announced that registration was now open for the largest international Catholic youth gathering, World Youth Day 2023, scheduled to take place on August 1–6.
“Dear young people, I invite you to register for this meeting in which, after a long period of staying at a distance, we will rediscover the joy of the fraternal embrace between peoples and between generations, which we need so much,” Pope Francis said on Sunday.
Pope Francis asked young people from Portugal to join him in the window of the Apostolic Palace for the announcement at the end of his Angelus address.
Lisbon, the Portuguese capital set to host World Youth Day 2023, is just 120 kilometres from Fatima, one of the most visited Marian pilgrimage sites in the world. In Fatima, the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in 1917 with a message of peace and a request for prayer.
The theme of Lisbon’s World Youth Day is “Mary arose and went with haste”.
In his message for the event, Pope Francis urged young people not to “not postpone all the good that the Holy Spirit can accomplish in you.”
“Now is the time to arise! Like Mary, let us ‘arise and go in haste.’ Let us carry Jesus within our hearts and bring him to all those whom we meet,” the Pope said.
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Pope Francis announces that World Youth Day registration is open (By Courtney Mares, CNA)
