Advertisement

Pope Francis to Travel to Portugal for August World Youth Day, to Visit Fatima

Pope Francis at the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter's Square on June 17, 2015. | Bohumil Petrik/CNA.

By Courtney Mares

Vatican, 22 May, 2023 / 7:51 pm (ACI Africa).

The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis will travel to Lisbon, Portugal, for World Youth Day this August with a visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.

Pope Francis is set to participate in World Youth Day from Aug. 2–6 and is scheduled to visit Fatima on Aug. 5.

The Lisbon trip will mark the 86-year-old pope’s fourth World Youth Day after taking part in the international Catholic gatherings in Panama, Poland, and Brazil.

World Youth Day was established by Pope John Paul II in 1985. The weeklong celebration usually attracts hundreds of thousands of young people.

The event is typically held on a different continent every three years, with the presence of the pope. The Vatican previously announced that World Youth Day would be postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Advertisement

Lisbon, the capital and largest city in Portugal, is about 75 miles from Fatima, one of the most visited Marian pilgrimage sites in the world where the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in 1917.

The theme of Lisbon’s World Youth Day, which will take place Aug. 1–6 is “Mary arose and went with haste.”

Pope Francis sent a video message to the teens and young adults preparing to attend this year’s World Youth Day earlier this month.

“To participate in WYD is something beautiful,” the pope said. “Prepare yourselves with that enthusiasm. Put hope in that. Have hope... because one grows a lot at an event like WYD.”

Courtney Mares

Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.

Trending

You may also like

Young people lead a procession in Protomartyrs Square at the Vatican for an ecumenical prayer service on Oct. 11, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Pope Francis, Synod Pray Where First Christian Martyrs of Rome Were Killed

The ecumenical prayer vigil Oct. 11 was held in Roman Protomartyrs Square inside Vatican City.

Pope Francis arrives at Luxembourg Airport on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, the first stop in a four-day tour of Luxembourg and Belgium, two historically Christian countries in Europe, both of which are experiencing steep declines in religious adherence amid the spread of secularization. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

In a Secularized Luxembourg, Pope Francis Tells Catholics to Evangelize Europe

Before flying to the neighboring country of Belgium on the afternoon of Sept. 26, the 87-year-old pope spent one day...

An external view of the Chapel of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem during the procession of the Franciscan friars after the first vespers of the Ascension solemnity on May 8, 2024. The procession circled the chapel three times. / Credit: Marinella Bandini

Catholics Ascend to Mount Olives, Site of Jesus’ Ascension, Only Day They Can Use Chapel Currently Under Muslim Control

“I’m excited to have come to pray in the actual place of the Ascension... I want to be closer to...