With one year remaining before World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul, organisers say planning has intensified. Source: OSV News.
Preparations are in full swing for the event, where Pope Leo XIV is expected to join young Catholics from around the world for the second World Youth Day ever held in Asia.
The August 3-8 gathering comes more than three decades after the first World Youth Day in Asia, which drew 4 million to 5 million people to Manila with St. John Paul II in 1995, setting a Guinness World Record for largest attendance at a papal event at the time.
Representatives from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life visited South Korea in July to review preparations and meet with bishops from dioceses that will host pilgrims in the diocesan days before the main event.
Archbishop Peter Soon-taick Chung of Seoul said the archdiocese has spent the past three years laying the groundwork for the gathering.
“The year ahead will be the time to complete our preparations and welcome young people from every part of the world,” Archbishop Chung said in a statement.
“We will do everything possible to make WYD Seoul 2027 a celebration of hope and a witness to the hospitality and solidarity of Korea and Seoul.”
Registration for World Youth Day attendees is scheduled to open in October.
Across the world, parishes and dioceses have already started preparing young people to participate in the pilgrimage to South Korea, which despite being the first non-Christian majority country to host World Youth Day, has a unique Catholic history with the witness of thousands of Christian martyrs who were killed for their faith.
Fr Michael Kong, a parish priest at St Mary of the Cross parish in the Melbourne suburb of Mordialloc, has been giving talks to the Catholic Youth Australia group and Melbourne’s archdiocesan preparation team on the history and culture of Catholicism in Korea.
He has also turned to social media to help young people prepare, drawing on his Korean heritage to share language tips and what young pilgrims can look forward to when visiting to one of Asia’s largest cities.
“I think the first impression many young Catholics will have when they arrive in Korea is the sheer energy of Seoul – its pace, scale and intensity,” he said.
“Seoul is a vibrant, modern city, and that can feel overwhelming at first, but I actually see that as part of the gift of pilgrimage. It is an invitation to receive what is unfamiliar with an open heart and a spirit of gratitude.”
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World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul to be ‘a celebration of hope,’ archbishop says (By Courtney Mares, OSV News)
