World Youth Day is starting in 100 days

Only 100 more days to go before the 2023 World Youth Day, which from Aug. 1-6 will bring together young men and women from all over the world for a week in Lisbon with Pope Francis. In order to mark the countdown to the "Days in the Dioceses"- that is, the days in the dioceses that have preceded the official opening of the event since 1991 and that this time will take place from July 26-31, 2023, in the dioceses of Portugal - yesterday more than a thousand parishes across the country illuminated the facades of monuments with the colors of the Day.

At the same time, in churches the bells rang festively, in keeping with the joyful spirit of the WYD, which has always been an instrument for promoting peace, unity and fraternity among peoples and nations around the world. In Figueira da Foz, in the Diocese of Coimbra, the World Youth Day Symbols - the Icon of Our Lady Salus Populi Romani and the Pilgrim Cross - were carried in procession at the opening of the Mass celebrated by Msgr. Américo Aguiar, Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon and President of the WYD Lisbon 2023 Foundation.

In his homily he recalled the need to "activate the heart" and that "we all have a task, we all have a mission to fulfill in this World Youth Day." In the meantime, there is a growing number of participants and volunteers who, through the special registration system, have chosen to participate in the most important appointment in the agenda of youth ministry in the world, which for this edition has as its theme "Mary arose and went with haste" (Lk 1:39).