The World Youth Day will take place from August 01-06 2023

“It’s with an immense joy that we reveal that the World Youth Day Lisbon 2023 will take place from 1 to 6 August. The announcement of WYD date, on St. Francis of Assisi day, is a very important moment for all of us. The youth from all over the world was looking forward to know the WYD Lisbon 2023 date to prepare their arrival to Lisbon with more details. We hope that the 22 months that will lead us to WYD might be a time of evangelization for all” D. Manuel Clemente, Cardinal-Patriarch of Lisbon, states.

At the moment, the working teams that form the Local Organizational Committee (COL), executive organ of preparation and organization of WYD Lisbon 2023, count with more than 400 volunteers, most of them Portuguese. In which of the 21 Portuguese dioceses there are also Diocesan Organizational Committees, responsible for impelling, in their region, the preparation path of WYD.

During last year, the highest moments of this preparation were the releasement of WYD official image, that took place in October 2020; the reception of the WYD symbols, which happened in November 2020 in Rome, during a celebration with Pope Francis; and the revelation of the WYD official theme song, in January 2021.

An event that crosses the world

The World Youth Day (WYD) was instituted by John Paul II, in 1985, and from that moment on it has been understood as a moment of gathering and sharing for millions of people around the world. The first edition was in 1986, in Rome, and these are the cities where it has already taken place: Buenos Aires (1987), Santiago de Compostela (1989), Czestochowa (1991), Denver (1993), Manila (1995), Paris (1997), Rome (2000), Toronto (2002), Cologne (2005), Sidney (2008), Madrid (2011), Rio de Janeiro (2013), Krakow (2016) and Panamá (2019).

It was on the 27th January 2019, during the World Youth Day in Panamá, that Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life of the Holy See, announced that Lisbon would be the following city to welcome the event. Firstly scheduled to the summer of 2022, WYD Lisbon 2023 was postponed for a year because of COVID-19 pandemic.