Portugal is the second Portuguese-speaking country to host the World Youth Day — DNOTICIAS.PT
Portugal is the second Portuguese-speaking country to host the World Youth Day (WYD), after Brazil hosted the event in 2013, in what was Pope Francis’ first apostolic trip abroad.
Elected Pope on March 13, 2013, succeeding Benedict XVI (1927-2022), Francis, a native of Argentina, made his first trip abroad, precisely to WYD, four months later.
In Rio de Janeiro, at the welcome ceremony, and in Portuguese, the Pope said: “I don’t have gold or silver, but I bring with me something more valuable, Jesus Christ. I come in his name to feed the flame of brotherly love that burns in all hearts and I wish that my greeting reaches everyone”.
The head of state of the Vatican said that it was providential desire that the first trip abroad was to Latin America, from where motivation for Rome, for the conclave that elected him pope.
At WYD, Francisco announced that he would return to Brazil in 2017, on the occasion of the tercentenary of the discovery of the image of Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Aparecida, which did not happen.
That year, he traveled for 24 hours to the Sanctuary of Fátima for the centenary of the events in Cova da Iria and for the canonization of Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto.
The Pope is expected to return to Fátima this year, after having confirmed, on April 29, 2021, in a private audience held at the Vatican, to the then Bishop of the Diocese of Leiria-Fátima, Cardinal António Marto, his intention to make a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary. , on the occasion of WYD.
When the choice of the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, was announced on January 27, 2019, at WYD in Panama City, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, considered that “it is recognition of the weight of Lusophony, of the world that speaks Portuguese”, and, “at the same time, the weight of Portugal, the weight of Fatima, the weight of the Portuguese Catholic people”.
“But I don’t hide that Lusophony and speaking Portuguese and being present on all continents, all over the world, weighed in the fight that was very difficult with other candidates” to organize WYD, he said at the time.
The cardinal-patriarch of Lisbon, Manuel Clemente, declared on the occasion that WYD in Lisbon “will be for the entire Portuguese-speaking world”.
“It will be in Portugal, it will be, specifically, in Lisbon, it will be for the entire Portuguese-speaking world, with a special insistence that our Portuguese-speaking brothers from Africa and other parts of the world come, certainly also our dear Brazilian brothers who are always so presents with so much strength that it can also be called World Youth Day in Portuguese”, added Manuel Clemente.
With the organization of WYD, the Portuguese capital, between the 1st and the 6th of August, is getting ready to receive, probably, the event with the largest number of people – around 1.5 million people are expected – that has ever been held in your story.
From being the seat of the European Capital of Culture, in 1994, to the world exhibition in 1998 (Expo’98) or more recently to the technology and entrepreneurship summit Web Summit, Lisbon has been the stage for several initiatives that have put its organizational capacity to the test.
In May 1982, Lisboa received Pope John Paul II (1920-2005), who presided over an outdoor mass in Parque Eduardo VII.
Nine years later, in May 1991, John Paul II returned to Portugal and once again included the Portuguese capital on his trip, celebrating a mass at the Restelo stadium.
In May 2010, on his only visit to Portugal, Benedict XVI said a mass at Praça do Comércio, in Lisbon, which was joined by around 500,000 people, and, in the same year, in November, the capital hosted the NATO Summit , in the capacity of various Heads of State and Government.
Among other major events that Lisbon hosted, in 2004, the European Football Championship. The capital was one of the cities of the championship, receiving, the final. In 2018, Lisbon hosted the Eurovision Song Contest.