Church / Portugal: Symbols of the World Youth Day pass from Beja to Évora through Alqueva
Cross and Marian icon are on pilgrimage throughout the country, heading to WYD 2023
Lisbon, Dec 29, 2021 (Ecclesia) – The symbols of the World Youth Day (WYD) will travel this Friday from the Diocese of Beja to the Archdiocese of Évora, on a tour of the Alqueva Dam reservoir.
The journey between Cais de Alqueva and Cais de Campinho starts at 11:30 am, marking the end of the pilgrimage of the WYD Cross and the Marian Icon in the territory of the Diocese of Beja, the second stage of the journey through Portuguese dioceses until the international edition of Journey, in Lisbon, in the summer of 2023.
In the Alentejo diocese, the symbols were welcomed in Mértola, on the Diocesan Youth Day, covering more than 2,000 kilometers, between parishes, fire brigades, schools, social centers, the hospital and the Beja prison.
In a statement sent today to the ECCLESIA Agency, by the organization of WYD 2023, Father Francisco Molho affirms that the presence of the Cross and the Icon of Our Lady was an opportunity to “create closeness” to the youth of the territory, an occasion for evangelization and dissemination and convening young people.
The passage of the symbols to Beja this December, a year and a half after the world meeting of young people with the Pope, in the summer of 2023, is an opportunity to encourage young people, as well as the dynamism and structures that are particularly attentive to young people, to enthusiastically commit themselves to the preparation of this great meeting”, said the priest, who coordinates the secretariat for Youth Ministry in the Diocese of Beja and the COD (Dioccesan Organizing Committee) of Beja and is part of the team that permanently accompanied the pilgrimage symbols of WYD in the diocese.
The Pilgrim Cross, built for the Holy Year in 1983, was entrusted by St. John Paul II to young people on Palm Sunday of the following year, so that it could be taken around the world; the icon of Our Lady ‘Salus Populi Romani’ has been a pilgrim with a Cross since 2000.
OC
Évora: The Archdiocese receives the pilgrimage of the symbols of the World Youth Day