Holy Father to young people: I look forward to August 2023!

In the video released by the Local Organizing Committee 2023, the Holy Father Francis greets young people and invites them to creatively prepare for the next World Youth Day.

"If you are not creative, if you are not poets, this meeting (...) will be a photocopy of the other meetings. And as the young Italian blessed said: each one must be an original, not a photocopy. And the meeting must be original, with everyone's contribution. You must create it. Take courage and go forward!"

Pope Francis also refers to the various current crises, encouraging young people to make them an opportunity for personal growth: "Crises are overcome together, not alone. And crises test us so that we can come out better. We don't come out of crises the same: either we come out better or worse. And the challenge before us is to come out better. And the best thing about you is that you are creative: you are creative, poets! Make this poem of creativity looking ahead to August 2023." - says the Pontiff, assuring the young people of his prayers and asking them to pray for him.

37. World Youth Day, guided by the theme, "Mary set out and went with haste" (Luke 1:39) will be held in Lisbon from August 1-6, 2023.