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Official program for Pope's visit to Portugal revealed

The Vatican today unveiled the official programme for Pope Francis' apostolic visit to Portugal for World Youth Day (WYD) Lisbon 2023. The first contact with pilgrims from all over the world is scheduled for June 3, at the Colina do Encontro (Eduardo VII Park).

As already announced by the Holy See, Pope Francis will arrive in Lisbon on August 2, having scheduled a meeting with the President of the Republic, Authorities, Civil Society, the Diplomatic Corps and the Prime Minister.

In a press conference, Archbishop Manuel Clemente, Cardinal-Patriarch of Lisbon, highlighted the "unprecedented richness" that it will be to receive young people from different countries of the world, from diverse cultures, in Lisbon. "It has been a successive involvement, which continues, of thousands of people, the overwhelming majority of whom are volunteers, who are working to make this event a very large projection throughout the world," he assured.

[WYD] marks a generation. With all these people who are working on the Day and with everything that will happen to those who participate in it, it will be the generation 2023. It is very striking and very involving in the sense of a more ecumenical society, more in solidarity and more fraternal

D. Américo Aguiar, President of the WYD Lisbon 2023 Foundation, presented the program that has been released and said that part of it sought to meet the "beloved themes" of Pope Francis, such as caring for the "common home," fraternity among all, and education. In addition, Archbishop Américo Aguiar also highlighted the search for "intergenerational encounter, to which the Pope also invites us so much" and that "the Journey leaves a unique legacy.

We want young people to be present on the Day. We are working so that, both on the hill of encounter and in the field of grace, young people with disabilities can be there

Also Carlos Moedas, Mayor of Lisbon, expressed "joy and immense gratitude for Lisbon having been the city chosen for this World Youth Day". "We are ready," said the mayor of Lisbon, less than two months before WYD Lisbon 2023.

I sincerely ask all Lisbon families to open their homes to all those who will be here during these days

Learn more about the official program for the Pope's apostolic visit here .

[updated on 7 June 2023]

D. Edward J. Burns expresses gratitude for the organisation of WYD and the welcome

What WYD Lisbon 2023 presented that no previous edition had

The meeting of young people from all over the world from different points of view and paths

Auxiliar Bishop Américo Aguiar gives a message to all WYD Lisbon 2023 pilgrims

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An Aging Pope Francis Looks to ‘Youth Day’ to Energize Church’s Future

The pope will preside over a gathering of young people from around the world, mindful that the changes he has initiated in the Roman Catholic Church will depend on them.

By Jason Horowitz

Reporting from Rome

Pope Francis, deep into his 80s, slowed by illness and aware that his window for bringing lasting change to the Roman Catholic Church is closing, arrived in Portugal on Wednesday for a weeklong meeting of the world’s young Catholics, in whose hands will rest the ultimate success or failure of his vision for a more pastoral and inclusive faith.

“I am happy to have come to Lisbon, this city of encounter, which embraces many peoples and cultures, and which, in these days, is even more global,” Francis told the country’s leaders in a speech on Wednesday morning in the Presidential Palace, adding that it had become “in a certain sense” a world capital, but also “the capital of the future, because the young are the future.”

Before the visit, the pope, 86, said in video remarks that he wanted “to see a seed for the world’s future” planted in Lisbon, and warned against the church’s becoming a “club” for older people that “will die.” Upon his arrival, he urged the leaders to help realize the dreams of “young people from around the world, who long for unity, peace and fraternity.”

“It is my hope that World Youth Day may be, for the ‘Old Continent,’ an impulse toward universal openness,” he added, referring to Europe, where the church’s following has dwindled as the population ages. “Old,” Francis underlined. “Old, we can say the elderly Continent.”

The gathering is expected to attract about a million people from more than 200 countries, many of them age 16 to 35, and many in sync with Francis’ emphasis on inequality and climate issues.

In remarks, Francis supported their protection of the environment, their campaigning for peace and economic justice, including the redistribution of enormous wealth, and countering demographic decline.

The meeting will also be attended by more than 700 bishops and 20 cardinals. The gathering comes as Portugal grapples with an exploding clerical sexual abuse crisis and as Francis prepares to tackle issues like the role of women and L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics in the church at a major meeting of the world’s bishops that will for the first time include women and laypeople .

As pope, Francis has sought to draw more people into the church by making it more welcoming and close to its people, and less focused on rules and abstractions, power and rank. World Youth Day, and Francis’ emphasis on the young, is a way to keep a lifeline open to the future as the church’s present, especially in the developed world, has been marked by scandals, decreasing numbers and declining cultural relevance.

It is growing more in the developing world, especially Africa and Asia, where young Catholics are more fervent. But those are also places where the church is more conservative.

Francis has steadily filled his hierarchy with prelates in his image, but has also often balked at opportunities to make concrete changes to church policy.

His supporters argue that the death of the retired and deeply conservative Pope Benedict XVI last year freed Francis from an awkward brake. And they say that his own health problems — he recently left the hospital after yet another surgery — have added urgency for him to start walking in a new direction rather than just talking about it.

There is also a view that Francis may be content to prepare the ground for a major shift, and to let his successor take the real leaps. But it is not clear who will follow Francis as pope.

In the meantime, Francis is also taking steps to rejuvenate the church. In a geriatric institution, he has put middle-aged men who share his pastoral approach in charge of major archdioceses like Buenos Aires, Brussels and Madrid. He has appointed cardinals in their 50s — spring chickens for the church — who could vote to select popes for decades to come.

The prelate in charge of World Youth Day, Américo Aguiar, only 49, will become a cardinal at a Sept. 30 ceremony during which Francis will elevate 21 churchmen. Bishop Aguiar will be the second-youngest cardinal after the head of the church in Mongolia, where Francis will travel at the end of August.

Pope John Paul II started World Youth Day in 1986 to demonstrate that the church had a younger, fresher face. The Lisbon event will be the 16th such engagement.

While Francis framed the fraternity of the meeting as an antidote to nationalism and populism, but far from being grass-roots movements, the events are rigorously planned and have not translated into an organic return back into the pews.

The Portuguese church has also sought to portray the event as interreligious, with the participation of Protestants, Muslims and Jews. It was an “event open to all,” Cardinal Manuel Clemente, patriarch of Lisbon, told reporters last month.

That presence is shrinking though, even in once-devout Portugal. The Portuguese Catholic Church, like so many across Europe, has consistently diminished and weakened, even as evangelical Christians, many of them Brazilian, have multiplied their numbers.

Lisbon, once a pious capital, is now a cosmopolitan and increasingly secular city. Newly revealed sexual abuse scandals in the Portuguese church seem destined to accelerate its falling numbers.

In February, a live broadcast of experts appointed by Portugal’s own church leaders reported that at least 4,815 children, most of them 10 to 14 years old, had been abused since 1950. The experts read accounts of some victims in front of the country’s top bishops, and the commission’s leader said that more than 100 priests suspected of abuse still had active church roles at the time of the report’s publication.

Bishop Aguiar has said that Francis will meet with some of those victims during his visit, even as the Portuguese church has waffled on possible reparation payments. Francis is expected to address the issue during his visit.

The distance between the country and the church has also been shown by criticism for the tens of millions of euros directed to finance the event. In the days before the event, a Portuguese artist, Bordalo II, laid out a red carpet made from oversized 500-euro bank notes.

“In a secular state,” the artist wrote, “at a time when many are struggling to keep their homes, their jobs and their dignity, millions of public money are going to sponsor the tour of the Italian multinational.”

That is not the message the Vatican is hoping for.

Instead, Francis was welcomed on Wednesday morning by two children dressed in white and seemed at ease and beamed as he met bishops and joked with local dignitaries before taking a white Toyota hybrid in a motorcade along streets sparsely populated with cheering fans. Arriving at the presidential palace, he walked a few steps with a cane and stood beside President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa for national anthems and the ceremonial shooting of rifles.

Francis will seek to animate young crowds with talk of peace on a continent once again marked by war. Francis himself has made fruitless, and critics say counterproductive, efforts to broker peace in Ukraine that Ukrainians have worried play into Russian hands. After a halting start, Francis has more clearly put the fault of the war on Russian aggression.

The pope is likely to stress his calls for peace on Saturday, when he is scheduled to return to the Shrine of Fátima, a pilgrimage site north of Lisbon where tradition holds that the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in 1917. She delivered a prophecy that the world would be destroyed if it did not convert, and that the pope could stay God’s angry hand if he brought atheists and Communist Russia to her “immaculate heart.”

Last year, Francis consecrated all the world, but especially Russia and Ukraine, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary before a statue of Our Lady of Fatima in St. Peter’s Basilica.

In his remarks to leaders on Wednesday, Francis sought to carve out a more concrete space for Europe in delivering peace.

“We are sailing amid storms on the ocean of history, and we sense the need for courageous courses of peace. With deep love for Europe, and in the spirit of dialogue that distinguishes this continent, we might ask her: ‘Where are you sailing, if you are not showing the world paths of peace, creative ways for bringing an end to the war in Ukraine and to the many other conflicts causing so much bloodshed?’”

An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated when a prayer vigil held by Pope Francis took place on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro. It was in 2013, not 2018.

How we handle corrections

Jason Horowitz is the Rome bureau chief, covering Italy, the Vatican, Greece and other parts of Southern Europe. He previously covered the 2016 presidential campaign, the Obama administration and Congress, with an emphasis on political profiles and features. More about Jason Horowitz

Vatican confirms Pope Francis trip to Lisbon and Fatima for World Youth Day

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis will travel to Portugal for World Youth Day in the first week of August and include a stop at the popular Marian shrine in Fatima, the Vatican said Monday.

The Aug. 2-6 visit is longer than originally expected and covers almost the entire week of the big Catholic rally that St. John Paul II inaugurated to try to invigorate young people in their faith.

Francis is staying in Lisbon for the length of the visit but will make a day trip to Fatima on Aug. 5. Francis previously traveled there in 2017  to mark the 100th anniversary of one of the most unique events of the 20th-century Catholic Church: the visions of the Virgin Mary reported by three shepherd children and the “secrets” she told them.

Francis’ visit this time around comes as war is raging in Ukraine, providing a comparison to when the original visions were reported at a time when Europe was in the throes of World War I.

Portuguese Bishops Conference: “We hope that the presence of Pope Francis among us, and which includes a significant pilgrimage to the Fatima shrine, will provide a powerful sense of renewal and grace for the church in Portugal.”

The visit comes as the Portuguese Catholic Church is reckoning with its legacy of clergy sexual abuse . Earlier this year, an independent report found that more than 4,800 people may have been victims starting in 1950. Previously, senior Portuguese church officials had claimed only a handful of cases had occurred.

There was no word on whether Francis would meet with victims, as he has done on several occasions elsewhere.

The Portuguese Bishops Conference expressed “huge joy” at the Vatican announcement of Francis’ visit and said hundreds of thousands of young people from around the world are expected in Lisbon. The rally was originally scheduled for 2022 but was postponed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic; the last international World Youth Day was held in 2019 in Panama.

“We hope that the presence of Pope Francis among us, and which includes a significant pilgrimage to the Fatima shrine, will provide a powerful sense of renewal and grace for the church in Portugal,” the Bishops’ Conference said in a statement.

Francis’ other travel this year is expected to include a quick trip to Marseille, France, on Sept. 23 to address a meeting of Mediterranean bishops. Also under study is a proposed visit to Mongolia starting in late August.

[Related: How World Youth Day is changing the church]

Articles by The Associated Press, The AP.

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Vatican confirms August trip by pope to Lisbon for World Youth Day, including Fatima stop

Pope Francis delivers the Regina Coeli noon prayer in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, May 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis delivers a blessing as he meets with faithful of Pilgrimage of the Vocationist Family, at the Vatican, Monday, May 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis arrives in the Paul VI hall to meet with faithful of Pilgrimage of the Vocationist Family, at the Vatican, Monday, May 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

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ROME (AP) — Pope Francis will travel to Portugal for World Youth Day in the first week of August and include a stop at the popular Marian shrine in Fatima, the Vatican said Monday.

The Aug. 2-6 visit is longer than originally expected and covers almost the entire week of the big Catholic rally that St. John Paul II inaugurated to try to invigorate young people in their faith.

Francis is staying in Lisbon for the length of the visit but will make a day trip to Fatima on Aug. 5. Francis previously traveled there in 2017 to mark the 100th anniversary of one of the most unique events of the 20th-century Catholic Church: the visions of the Virgin Mary reported by three shepherd children and the “secrets” she told them.

Francis’ visit this time around comes as war is raging in Ukraine, providing a comparison to when the original visions were reported at a time when Europe was in the throes of World War I.

The visit comes as the Portuguese Catholic Church is reckoning with its legacy of clergy sexual abuse. Earlier this year, an independent report found that more than 4,800 people may have been victims starting in 1950. Previously, senior Portuguese church officials had claimed only a handful of cases had occurred.

There was no word on whether Francis would meet with victims, as he has done on several occasions elsewhere.

The Portuguese Bishops Conference expressed “huge joy” at the Vatican announcement of Francis’ visit and said hundreds of thousands of young people from around the world are expected in Lisbon. The rally was originally scheduled for 2022 but was postponed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic; the last international World Youth Day was held in 2019 in Panama.

“We hope that the presence of Pope Francis among us, and which includes a significant pilgrimage to the Fatima shrine, will provide a powerful sense of renewal and grace for the church in Portugal,” the Bishops’ Conference said in a statement.

Francis’ other travel this year is expected to include a quick trip to Marseille, France, on Sept. 23 to address a meeting of Mediterranean bishops. Also under study is a proposed visit to Mongolia starting in late August.

Pope Francis Will Be in Portugal for 5 Days. Here's What He Will Visit

Pope Francis is beginning a five-day trip to Portugal for World Youth Day

Pope Francis Will Be in Portugal for 5 Days. Here's What He Will Visit

Ana Brigida

A group of Vietnamese from the United States travelling to attend International World Youth Day stand in front of the 16th century Jeronimos monastery in Lisbon, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. Pope Francis will visit the monastery when he arrives Aug. 2 to attend the event that is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of young Catholic faithful to Lisbon and goes on until Aug. 6. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Pope Francis begins a five-day trip to Portugal on Wednesday for World Youth Day , the international Catholic jamboree that is expected to gather around 1 million people.

While in Portugal, Francis will visit the place from where 15th- and 16th-century Portuguese explorers set sail on world-changing voyages to Africa, Asia and South America, a church and monastery that are unique architectural gems, and one of the world’s most popular Catholic shrines where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to children.

Here’s a look at where Francis will go.

BELEM NATIONAL PALACE

The official reception is at the Palácio Nacional de Belém, which is the Portuguese president’s residence, also known as the pink palace.

Photos You Should See

It sits beside the Tagus River in the neighborhood of Belem, which in Portuguese means Bethlehem. It was from here that Portugal’s maritime explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries, such as Vasco da Gama, set sail.

The cross and the crown went together on those journeys, though in March the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery — the theories backed by 15th-century “papal bulls” that legitimized Portugal and Spain’s colonial-era conquests and seizures of land.

BELEM CULTURAL CENTER

The Centro Cultural de Belem was built as the base for Portugal’s first ever presidency, in 1992, of what is now called the European Union.

The pink-and-white stone-trimmed building now houses the Atlantic port’s Contemporary Art Museum and concert halls.

Francis meets here Wednesday with Lisbon’s diplomatic corps, local officials and members of civil society.

JERONIMOS CHURCH AND MONASTERY

The pontiff will be at evening prayers at the Jeronimos Church and Monastery later Wednesday at what arguably is Portugal’s greatest monument. Its construction began in 1501 as King Manuel I’s biggest prestige project.

The site is now one of Lisbon’s signature buildings and one of the city's architectural gems.

Formerly a quaint fishing village, with narrow streets in its center, Cascais is now a flourishing tourist town with sought-after beaches and is one of Portugal’s wealthiest areas.

Francis travels to Cascais, which is about 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Lisbon, along the Atlantic coast, to the town on Thursday to visit a branch of Scholas Occurrentes, a youth foundation he launched.

PRACA DO IMPERIO

The broad, gardened Empire Square with its large fountain in Belem was built as part of the 1940 Exhibition of the Portuguese World, an event put on by dictator Antonio Salazar’s government to showcase the empire.

In May, the Vatican recalled a postage stamp promoting World Youth Day following complaints that it celebrated Portugal’s colonial rule and the dictatorship. It featured Francis leading a group of children up Lisbon’s Monument to the Discoveries across the road, which also started out as an exhibit.

The pope will hear confessions in the square on Friday.

SERAFINA NEIGHBORHOOD

The pope will visit Serafina's community center on Friday. It was a troubled district of the capital at the end of the last century, dogged by drug and crime problems.

But the community center run by Rev. Francisco Crespo has helped it put that past behind it. The neighborhood sits beneath Lisbon’s giant 18th-century aqueduct, an emphatic reminder of the bounty that gold from its Brazilian colony afforded Portugal.

PARQUE EDUARDO VII

Central Lisbon’s largest park, Parque Eduardo VII, rises to a ridge offering a view to the Tagus River over downtown Lisbon. It was named in 1903 for King Edward VII of Britain, who had visited Lisbon the previous year. The pontiff will be there for a reception on Thursday and presides over the Way of the Cross procession on Friday.

The shrine in the rural Portuguese town of Fatima, which is one of the Catholic Church’s most popular pilgrimage destinations, became famous after three local children reported seeing visions of the Virgin Mary above a tree there in 1917.

The sanctuary can hold hundreds of thousands of people.

Francis travels to the town about 120 kilometers (about 70 miles) north of Lisbon by helicopter on Saturday.

PARQUE DO TEJO

The Parque do Tejo is in one of Lisbon’s newest residential areas, which grew out of the 1998 Lisbon World Fair. That event swept aside Lisbon’s rusting eastern industrial area.

Francis will hold a vigil with thousands of young people at the park on Saturday evening and will celebrate Mass at the site on Sunday morning.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Copyright 2023 The  Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Vatican confirms August trip by pope to Lisbon for World Youth Day, including Fatima stop

Pope francis will be going to portugal for world youth day in the first week of august, article bookmarked.

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Pope Francis will travel to Portugal for World Youth Day in the first week of August and include a stop at the popular Marian shrine in Fatima, the Vatican said Monday.

The Aug. 2-6 visit is longer than originally expected and covers almost the entire week of the big Catholic rally that St. John Paul II inaugurated to try to invigorate young people in their faith.

Francis is staying in Lisbon for the length of the visit but will make a day trip to Fatima on Aug. 5. Francis previously traveled there in 2017 to mark the 100th anniversary of one of the most unique events of the 20th-century Catholic Church: the visions of the Virgin Mary reported by three shepherd children and the “secrets” she told them.

Francis’ visit this time around comes as war is raging in Ukraine, providing a comparison to when the original visions were reported at a time when Europe was in the throes of World War I.

The Fatima mystery has fascinated Catholics and non-Catholics alike for a century, blending visions of the Virgin, supernatural weather events and apocalyptic messages of hell, war, communism and the death of a pope.

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Pope Francis: World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon will open horizons, hearts

By Hannah Brockhaus

Rome Newsroom, Jan 20, 2023 / 02:08 am

World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, will open horizons and hearts, Pope Francis said in a video message to the young adults who will attend the international gathering in August.

He said: “At this meeting, during this [World Youth Day], learn to always look towards the horizon, to always look beyond.”

“Don’t put up a wall in front of your life,” the pope encouraged. “Walls close you in, the horizon makes you grow. Always look at the horizon with your eyes, but look, above all, with your heart.”

Pope Francis sent the video message on Jan. 20, fewer than 200 days before World Youth Day (WYD) 2023 in Portugal’s capital city Aug. 1–6.

Organizers met with Pope Francis and Vatican officials in Rome last week to discuss final preparations for the six-day gathering, which expects to see hundreds of thousands of participants.

In his Jan. 20 video message, Pope Francis noted that 400,000 young adults had already registered to attend World Youth Day.

“It calls my attention and fills me with joy that so many young people will go to WYD, because they need to participate,” he said.

“Thank you for having already registered so far in advance,” the pope added. “Let’s hope others will follow your example.”

Francis said though some participants may claim they are only going to the event as tourists, rather than pilgrims, “deep down, he or she has the thirst to participate, to share, to tell their experience and receive the experience of others.”

He encouraged them to open their hearts to other cultures and to the other young men and women who will be there.

“Get ready for this: to open horizons, to open your hearts,” he said.

World Youth Day was established by Pope John Paul II in 1985. The meeting is typically held on a different continent every three years with the presence of the pope.

Lisbon, a city of 505,000 people, is approximately 75 miles from Fatima, one of the world’s most popular Marian pilgrimage sites.

Pope Francis is expected to attend the global Catholic gathering with stops in both Lisbon and Fatima.

The last World Youth Day was held in Panama in January 2019.

In 2020, Pope Francis announced that the next World Youth Day, originally planned for 2022, would be postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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• World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon

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Pope Francis Portugal visit confirmed

Pope Francis will arrive in Lisbon for World Youth Day on August 2, returning to Rome on the 6th, with a visit to Fátima scheduled for the 5th, the WYD Lisbon Foundation reported today. 

By TPN/Lusa, in News , Portugal · 22 May 2023, 14:05 · 1 Comments

"The WYD Lisbon 2023 Foundation received with great joy the news, by the Holy See, of the visit of Pope Francis to Portugal. August 6", announced the WYD organisation in a statement.

According to the note, "by the express will of Pope Francis, the official program of the visit will also include a trip to Fátima, which will take place on August 5".

The Pope will participate, on 3 August, in the afternoon, in the Parque Eduardo VI, in the ceremony of the Welcome of the Pilgrims. The following day, he will preside over the Via Sacra, also in Eduardo VI Park, while on Saturday, in addition to the morning in Fátima, he will be in the late afternoon, and early evening, in Tagus Park, for the beginning of the Youth Vigil.

On Sunday, in addition to the final mass, during the morning, also in Parque Tejo, in the afternoon there will be a meeting with the thousands of volunteers participating in WYD, before returning to the Vatican.

After disclosing the dates of the Pope's stay in Portugal, the cardinal-patriarch of Lisbon, Manuel Clemente, shared, in a note, the “joy for being able to participate in this World Youth Day” and expressed “gratitude to all the authorities” in the country, who “help make this day possible”.

“I would also like to thank all the partners and benefactors of WYD Lisbon 2023 who generously help us in the most diverse difficulties and needs that we encounter”, says Manuel Clemente.

This is the second trip of Pope Francis to Portugal, after in 2017, presiding over the ceremonies of May 13, at the Sanctuary of Fátima, in a visit within the framework of the centenary of the apparitions and which was marked by the official canonisation of the two shepherd children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto.

Francis is the fourth Pope to visit Portugal, after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1982, 1991 and 2000, and Benedict XVI in 2010.

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This is terrific news that Pope Francis is visiting Portugal once again, this visit will bring much joy to so many people.

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Pope to youth in Lisbon: ‘Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty'

By Linda Bordoni

Paulo, Mariana and Aledje were amongst the protagonists on Thursday at an event attended by Pope Francis and members of Scholas Occurrentes , at the Pontifical Foundation's Portuguese headquarters in Cascais, south of Lisbon.

They are three of the tens of thousands of young people, of different faiths and backgrounds, who belong to the worldwide Scholas movement for education, founded in 2013 and inspired by Pope Francis’ call for the transformation of global education in the spirit of encounter and inclusion.

The Pope listened to the testimonies of the three young students of different confessions – an Evangelist, a Catholic and a Muslim – and responded to each of them.

The transformational power of chaos

The Holy Father encouraged them on their shared journey in a broken world, rocked by chaos and marked by division, and directed them to continue in their effort to help create a world where fraternity and care for each other will bring harmony.

Much of the conversation stemmed from the contemplation of a colourful wall painting decorating the hall in which the meeting took place. The “chaos” depicted in the painting, the Pope said, reflects the reality of the cosmos and the lives of each of us.

“Life is transformed by the chaos of life and the cosmos,” he noted, but said it is up to each of us to find a path of truth and beauty.

After having been handed a paintbrush, the Pope added the conclusive touch to the Scholas mural, painting a circular stroke in green paint that blended seamlessly into the whole.

He too had a painting, a gift for the students consisting of an ancient oil on wood artwork in a very different style, depicting the Good Samaritan.

Pointing to the representation, he invited those present never to be afraid of “getting their hands dirty” and to always be there for those in need. “Only by getting your hands dirty,” he said, “will you keep your hearts clean.”

“Only by getting your hearts dirty will you keep your hearts clean.”

The crucial role of education

The Cascais event represented a truly “informal” occasion for the Pope and the young people whom he blessed as a young singer filled the air with the melancholic notes of Fado, a symbol of Portuguese culture and tradition, inscribed in UNESCO’s Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

His visit to the Scholas community came on the heels of his meeting with students at the Catholic University of Portugal, on the day in which he has chosen to dedicate attention to the need for a new educational model that goes beyond borders and promotes fraternity and sharing in a world where everything is connected.

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Pope Francis will be in Portugal from August 2 to 6 

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Pope Francis will be in Portugal from August 2 to 6, 2023, for the 37th World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, the Holy See Press Office announced on May 22. During this trip, his 42nd journey abroad, the Pope will also visit the Shrine of Fatima on August 5. He already visited this sanctuary in 2017, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Marian apparitions. 

This will be the 86-year-old Pontiff’s fourth WYD since his election in 2013. His first trip abroad as the newly elected Pope Francis was to the WYD in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He then went to WYD in Krakow, Poland, in 2016, and in Panama City, Panama, in 2019.

More than 600,000 people have now registered to attend this year’s event in Lisbon, which is now a little over two months away. The theme of this year’s WYD is “Mary rose and went in haste.” The program published on the organization’s website features several meetings with the Pope, as is the tradition at every WYD. These include a “welcome ceremony” on August 3, a Way of the Cross on August 4, a prayer vigil on August 5 and a final open-air Mass on August 6. 

During his five days in Portugal, the head of the Catholic Church will also visit the Shrine of Fatima, some 120 kilometers (around 75 miles) from the capital. This will be his second visit to the Shrine as he went in 2017 on occasion of the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the three shepherd children Lucia Santos, Francisco and Jacinta Marto. 

Portugal will be Pope Francis’ third international destination in 2023, after a trip to Africa – Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan – in February, as well as to Hungary in late April. On his way back from Budapest, the Pontiff, whose mobility has been reduced for over a year, spoke to journalists about his health: “You see, it is not the same as two years ago, but with the cane… things are better.” “Yes, I will go [to Lisbon] and I hope to manage it,” he said. 

A trip to Marseille is supposed to occur on September 23. Pope Francis has also mentioned several times a trip to Mongolia.

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Pope Francis heads to Lisbon for World Youth Day weeks after surgery

World europe.

The Argentine pontiff has a packed schedule in Portugal despite his health issues

Vatican City: Almost two months after undergoing hernia surgery, Pope Francis heads to Lisbon Wednesday for a five-day trip for World Youth Day, a major Catholic event expected to draw a million pilgrims.

The 86-year-old Argentine pontiff has a typically packed schedule in Portugal despite his health issues, which saw him spend nine nights in hospital in June - his third stay in hospital since 2021.

An outspoken Jesuit who loves being among his flock, Pope Francis is hugely popular among young Catholics and is likely to address issues they particularly care about, such as climate change. He is also expected to talk about the war in Ukraine.

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World Youth Day, a week of religious, cultural and festive events held every two or three years, is also an opportunity for the Catholic Church to show it is still relevant after many followers were left alienated by decades of scandal over clerical child sex abuse.

Church organisers are expecting about one million pilgrims from across the globe, although the Portuguese government has suggested it could be up to 1.5 million.

In his first trip abroad since his surgery, the pope is due to make 11 public pronouncements and hold numerous meetings, and on Saturday will visit the shrine of Fatima north of Lisbon.

Americo Aguiar, the auxiliary bishop of Lisbon who is organising the event, said some elements of the programme might change, however, depending on the health of the pope, who regularly uses a wheelchair.

"We are aware of the limits of the pope," Aguiar told AFP, saying organisers were doing their best to adapt, including reducing the amount of times the pontiff must get in and out of a car.

Around 16,000 members of law enforcement, civil protection and medical staff are being deployed for the visit, officials said.

Roads and metro stations will be closed, presenting a challenge for the city of 550,000 inhabitants already busy with summer tourists.

Meeting abuse victims

The pope arrives in Lisbon on Wednesday, the second day of World Youth Day, meeting with officials, diplomats and religious figures before a series of encounters with young people on Thursday and Friday.

On Saturday morning Francis will visit the rural pilgrimage site of Fatima, where in 2017 he declared sainthood for two young shepherds who a century earlier had visions of the Virgin Mary.

That evening the pope will lead a vigil in Lisbon's waterfront Parque Tejo, ahead of a mass held at the park Sunday morning.

Preparations are already well underway for the visit, with World Youth Day flags in green, red and yellow adorning the main square.

Pope Francis is also expected during his visit to meet privately with victims of sexual abuse by members of the Portuguese clergy.

A report published in February by an independent commission found at least 4,815 children were sexually abused by clergy members - mostly priests - since 1950.

The inquiry, based on testimony from over 500 victims, concluded that the Church hierarchy in Portugal "systematically" tried to conceal the abuse.

The results of the inquiry, which was commissioned by the Church in the country, has been a damning blow to the institution in Portugal where 80 percent of its population of some 10 million people identify as Roman Catholic.

Distant relationship

But among some groups of Catholics, faith is still strong, particularly among students, noted Jose Pereira Coutinho, a sociologist at the Catholic University of Portugal.

Americo Aguiar said the pope himself was hugely influential.

"Many young people I've met don't regularly go to mass on Sunday... Pope Francis is a huge draw for these young people who have a very distant relationship with the Church," he told AFP.

"This calls for a different model (of engagement) on our part."

Initially scheduled for August 2022, but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Lisbon World Youth Day is the 16th international edition of what has become the largest gathering of Catholics worldwide.

The brainchild of late Pope John Paul II, this year's event is the fourth presided over by Pope Francis, who became head of the Catholic Church in 2013.

The last three events took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2013, Krakow, Poland in 2016 and Panama City, Panama in 2019.

Lisbon is the pope's 42nd overseas visit and will be followed by a trip to Mongolia in early September and Marseille in the south of France on September 23.

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Pope laments ban on girls education, dress code laws for women

Pope in lisbon calls on youth to be ‘teachers of hope’.

Pope speaks to students and faculty at the Catholic University of Portugal in Lisbon on Aug. 2, 2023. (Credit: Jurgen Erbacher/pool photo.)

LISBON – Pope Francis kicked off the second day of his August 2-6 visit to Lisbon meeting with Catholic university students, telling them to maintain a restless search for a better future and to work toward a more inclusive and just world.

He praised the contribution of women and told students not to be afraid to take risks in the pursuit of their aspirations, but he cautioned against using their education for their own personal benefit, saying a degree in higher education must be used for the benefit of all.

“Our condition as seekers and pilgrims means that we will always be somewhat restless, for, as Jesus tells us, we are in the world, but not of the world. We are called to something higher, and we will never be able to soar unless we first take flight,” the pope told students enrolled at the Catholic University of Portugal Thursday morning.

“We should not be alarmed, then, if we sense an inner thirst, a restless, unfulfilled longing for meaning and a future,” he said, saying, “We should not be lethargic, but alive!”

One should be concerned, he said, if they are tempted to “abandon the road ahead for a resting place that gives the illusion of comfort, or when we find ourselves replacing faces with screens, the real with the virtual, or resting content with easy answers that anesthetize us to painful and disturbing questions.”

He encouraged them to take risks in their search for answers, noting that the modern world “faces enormous challenges,” and is marked by “the painful plea of so many of our brothers and sisters.”

For the situation to improve, the human being must be put at the center, he said, telling them to replace whatever doubts they might have with “dreams: do not remain hostage to your fears, but set about working to realize your goals!”

Pope Francis is currently in Lisbon for for World Youth Day (WYD), an international gathering of youth launched by Pope John Paul II in 1986 and which this year is expected to draw up to two million.

As part of his visit, the pope has met with local civil authorities, calling WYD a sign of hope for a troubled Europe, and he has offered words of comfort to the country’s bishops, clergy, and religious amid challenges of secularism and abuse scandals.

He will also visit the famed Marian shrine of Fatima and participate in several formal WYD activities before returning to Rome.

In his speech to university students, Francis urged them to use their degrees to initiate meaningful change, saying, “A university would have little use if it were simply to train the next generation to perpetuate the present global system of elitism and inequality, in which higher education is the privilege of a happy few.”

“Unless knowledge is embraced as a responsibility, it bears little fruit,” he said, asking them whether they are still trapped inside their own “bubble,” or whether they are ready to take risks in “working to shape a world of justice and beauty?”

Pope Francis also stressed the importance of global fraternity, saying an academic degree “should not be seen merely as a license to pursue personal wellbeing, but as a mandate to work for a more just and inclusive – that is, truly progressive – society.”

He thanked the four students who gave testimonies prior to his speech, saying they struck “a hopeful note, full of enthusiasm and realism; you did not complain or escape into flights of idealism. You want to be protagonists of change.

Noting that Portuguese writer José de Almada Negreiros once said he dreamt of a world in which everyone is a teacher, the pope said, “This old man now speaking to you also dreams that yours will become a generation of teachers! Teachers of humanity. Teachers of compassion. Teachers of new opportunities for our planet and its inhabitants. Teachers of hope.”

Pope Francis also stressed the importance of caring for the environment by redefining what is meant by “progress and development.”

“Yours can be the generation that takes up this great challenge. You have the most advanced scientific and technological tools, but please, avoid falling into the trap of myopic and partial approaches,” he said, insisting on the need to link challenges to their root causes.

“Instead of polarized approaches, we need a unified vision, a vision capable of embracing the whole,” he said.

Christians in particular, he said, must “make your faith credible through your choices,” the pope said, saying the most important task for Christians in any age is “to recover the meaning of incarnation.”

“Without the incarnation, Christianity becomes ideology,” whereas it is the awareness of Christ’s incarnation that allows one to look beyond themselves and focus on others, he said.

Francis also praised the contribution of women, noting that the university recently named a new academic chair for the “Economy of Francis” after Assisi’s second most famous saint, Saint Clare.

Women, he said, “are the real heads of the household, possessed of a wisdom aimed not merely at profit, but also at care, coexistence, and the physical and spiritual wellbeing of all, including the poor and the stranger.”

“It is exciting to approach the study of economics from this standpoint, for the sake of restoring to the economy its proper dignity, lest it fall prey to unbridled market speculation,” he said.

He urged students to study the Global Compact on Education and to heed its call for “innovative ways of understanding economics, politics, growth and progress,” as well as its emphasis on “the need to educate about acceptance and inclusion.”

Pointing to the many commitments students have as they balance studies, friends, community service and even political responsibility, Pope Francis said “That is what it means to be a Catholic university: each part is related to the whole, while the whole is to be found in each of its parts.”

“As you acquire knowledge and academic expertise, you will grow as a person, in self-knowledge and in the ability to discern the path of your future. So, carry on!” he said.

Follow Elise Ann Allen on Twitter: @eliseannallen

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Belgrade archbishop, hopes for pope's visit to Serbia

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BELGRADE , 01 aprile 2024, 15:53

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- RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA

Relations between Serbia and the Vatican have never been so good since diplomatic relations were established, and a visit by Pope Francis to Belgrade would help further strengthen and intensify relations. This was stated by Monsignor Ladislav Nemet, Catholic Archbishop of Belgrade, who said that Serbia's failure to recognize Kosovo undoubtedly contributes to the situation. "In the relations between Serbia and the Holy See I see the dictatorship of common sense and reasonable behavior. I am sure that such relations can still improve," Nemet said in an interview with the Belgrade daily Politika.     "I have been to the Vatican and invited the pope first verbally and then in writing to visit Serbia" on the occasion of the centenary of the establishment of the Archdiocese of Belgrade, the archbishop added, noting that he had spoken with Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Porfirije and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic about it. The pontiff, he noted, has been very willing and happy about his possible visit to Serbia. "Last year, on his return from Lisbon, the pope said he also wanted to visit Kosovo," Nemet said. These days, however, he has been told by the Vatican that due to Pope Francis' health condition no visit can be promised. The archbishop said he is planning a visit to Rome in the coming days, and that he intends to talk about all this at the Vatican."If the state of Pope Francis' health does not allow it, we will certainly have a visit from a senior Vatican official," said the Belgrade archbishop, according to whom the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin may visit Serbia next September, representing the pope, for the centenary celebrations of the Belgrade archdiocese.        

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