Pope Francis, 86, landed in Lisbon on Wednesday August 2, where a million young pilgrims from all continents await him to take part in World Youth Day (WYD), a major event for a Catholic Church in full reflection. on his future. He was welcomed by conservative Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, with whom he will meet at Belém Palace.
With eleven speeches and twenty meetings, the program of this forty-second trip abroad promises to be busy for the Argentinian Jesuit, two months after a major abdominal operation.
Organizers are expecting a million pilgrims from more than two hundred countries for this week of festive, cultural and spiritual gatherings, which opened on Tuesday with a mass at the top of a hill overlooking the city center and the estuary. of the Tagus. 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 at this time. summer.
Themes dear to young people
War in Ukraine, ecology, social justice: Jorge Bergoglio, whose direct and spontaneous style is very popular among young people, should address themes that are dear to them, as the Catholic Church faces the challenge of secularization in Europe.
Less than two months before the opening of a world gathering in Rome intended to consider the future of the Church, this event acts as a barometer on the position of young Catholics vis-à-vis the welcome LGBT, the marriage of priests or the place of women. So many subjects on which Pope Francis has gradually outlined reforms in ten years of pontificate.
Before the first meeting with the young people, Thursday August 3, the day of Wednesday will be devoted to the authorities and the clergy of the country, where 80% of the ten million inhabitants define themselves as Catholics.
Private meeting with victims of sexual assault
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. On Saturday, the pope will make a whirlwind visit to the Marian shrine of Fatima (about a hundred kilometers north of the capital), before returning to Lisbon to participate in a large vigil in a park in the near suburbs, and to preside over mass there. final the next day.
Fourth pope to visit Portugal, where he had already visited 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. The document, published in February at the request of the Portuguese bishops’ conference, revealed the number of 4,815 minor 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 Episcopal Conference and the head of the local WYD organizing committee, the pope must also meet privately with victims of underage sexual assault at the time of the events, an appointment which does not currently appear in the official program.
Initially scheduled for August 2022, but postponed due to the pandemic, this event created in 1986 by John Paul II, which is the largest Catholic gathering in the world, revolves around numerous meetings (concerts, time for discussion and prayer, conferences, debates, etc.). After Rio de Janeiro (2013), Krakow (2016) and Panama (2019), these are the fourth World Youth Days for François, whose health appears increasingly fragile. Hospitalized three times since 2021, he now moves in a wheelchair or leans on a cane.
