The participants visited the most important places of the great event of Christian youth spirituality scheduled for August 2023: the spaces for the common celebrations, the reception of the Holy Father, the Stations of the Cross, the vigil, and the Sending Mass. They also met with the Local Organizing Committee in the coordination center, where they were briefed on the organization's master plans and where tasks were distributed ahead of the meeting. "It was an incredible meeting, with representatives from all dioceses and congregations, a first experience of the richness of the Church and what we will experience during those days," explained a representative of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, who also attended the preparatory meeting.
For WYD Lisbon 2023, the Local Organizing Committee has proposed 13 patron saints, including Don Bosco, Charles Acutis, St. Anthony of Padua, and Blessed Maria Clara of the Child Jesus, figures of holiness who stand out for having been born in the host city of WYD or who are ever-present models for young people.
WYD is a meeting of young people from all over the world with the Pope. It is also a pilgrimage, a youth festival, an expression of the universal Church, and a powerful moment of evangelization of the youth world. It is a call to a generation determined to build a more just and united world. Despite its clearly Catholic identity, it is open to all, both those closest to the Church and those furthest from it.
Since its very first edition, held in Rome in 1986, World Youth Day has distinguished itself as a laboratory of faith, a birthplace of vocations to marriage, priesthood, and consecrated life, and an instrument of evangelization and transformation of the Church.
Office of Social Communication of the Salesians of Spain
