“I will come back (from this trip) rejuvenated. Pope Francis, 86, arrived in Lisbon on Wednesday August 2 for World Youth Day (WYD). A major event within a Catholic Church in full reflection on its future. A million young believers from all continents awaited him impatiently. The sovereign pontiff has a busy schedule ahead of him: eleven speeches and around twenty meetings. The pope will not be idle for his 42nd trip abroad, which comes only two months after his heavy abdominal operation.
War in Ukraine, ecology, social justice: Jorge Bergoglio, whose direct and spontaneous style enjoys strong popularity among young people, should tackle themes dear to this generation, as the Catholic Church faces the challenge of secularization in Europe .
Pushed on a wheelchair, the pope was met at the airport by Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a conservative and devout Catholic whom he was due to meet after driving through a partially blocked city to let his convoy pass.
“We are the Pope’s youth!” chanted hundreds of faithful who waited for him outside the presidential palace in Belém, beating drums and waving flags in the colors of their countries.
“We love him very much because he sends us the love that God has for us. […] He is closer to us,” Byron Santiago Chojolar, a 26-year-old pilgrim from Guatemala, told AFP.
In recent days, the Portuguese capital has been taken over by groups of pilgrims carrying flags from all over the world, while banners and posters with the yellow, green and red logo of the event adorn the streets. Some 16,000 members of the police and medical services are deployed for the occasion, and several roads and metro stations will be closed, a challenge for this city of 550,000 inhabitants which already welcomes many tourists in this summer period. .
Before the first meeting with young people on Thursday, Wednesday will be devoted to the authorities and the clergy of the country, where 80% of the 10 million inhabitants define themselves as Catholics.
Francis will deliver his first speech at midday to the authorities and the diplomatic corps at the cultural center of Belém, then will speak at the end of the afternoon to the Portuguese clergy at the Jeronimos Monastery, a famous 16th century building on the edge of of the Tagus.
Fourth pope to visit Portugal, where he had already been in 2017, Francis could take the opportunity to address the delicate issue of pedocrime in the Church, six months after the publication of a shock report by a commission of experts. independent.
According to the survey carried out at the request of the Portuguese bishops, at least 4,815 minors have been victims of sexual violence in a religious context since 1950, acts concealed by the hierarchy of the Church in a “systemic” way. According to the Portuguese ecclesiastical authorities, the pope must meet in private with victims of sexual assault, an appointment which does not appear at this stage in the official program.
On Saturday, the pope will make a whirlwind visit to the Marian shrine of Fatima (Centre), before returning to Lisbon to participate in a great vigil in a park in the near suburbs, and to preside over the final mass there the next day.
