By Courtney Mares
With a click of a pill in front of the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis became the first user to register for the upcoming World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Pope announced that registration is now open for World Youth Day 2023, the largest gathering of young Catholics scheduled for Aug. 1-6.
“Dear young people, I invite you to join this assembly in which, after a long period of estrangement, we will rediscover the joy of fraternity between peoples and between generations, which we need so much,” Pope Francis said. October 23.
Pope Francis asked the young people of Portugal to sign up for him at the window of the Apostolic Palace for the announcement at the end of his Angelus address.
World Youth Day is aimed at others between the ages of 16 and 35, according to its organizers. The foreign event is held on another continent every three years, but was postponed until 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
St. John Paul II created the week-long youth gathering in 1985. In some World Youth Days, participation has reached millions.
Lisbon, the Portuguese capital that will host World Youth Day 2023, is just 120 kilometers from Fatima, one of the most visited Marian pilgrimage sites in the world. In Fatima, the Virgin Mary impressed 3 young shepherds in 1917 with a message of peace and a prayer request.
The theme of World Youth Day in Lisbon is “Mary were delivered and left in haste”. In his message for the event, Pope Francis suggested young people not to “delay all that the Holy Spirit can do in you. “”
“Now it’s time to get up! Like Mary, “let us rise and set off in haste. “Let us bring Jesus to our hearts and bring him to all we meet,” the pope said.