Two months after a heavy abdominal operation, Pope Francis is expected in Lisbon on Wednesday for World Youth Day (WYD), a five-day visit attended by one million young Catholics from around the world. Hospitalized twice since the start of the year, the 86-year-old Argentinian Jesuit nevertheless has a busy schedule for this 42nd trip abroad since his election in 2013, with no less than 11 speeches and around twenty meetings.
As soon as he arrives on Wednesday, the pope will speak for the first time before the authorities of the country and the diplomatic corps. On Thursday and Friday, he will meet young people from different groups as well as volunteers. On Saturday, he will spend the morning at the famous Marian shrine of Fatima, located 130 km north of Lisbon, where he had already visited in 2017, and will participate in a large vigil in a park in the center of Lisbon, before presiding over the final mass the next day.
According to the Portuguese Episcopal Conference and the head of the local WYD organizing committee, the pope must also meet privately with victims of sexual assaults on minors committed by members of the Portuguese clergy, six months after the publication of a shocking report by a committee of independent experts. The Vatican has not confirmed this meeting. According to the document, requested by the Portuguese Catholic hierarchy, at least 4,815 minors have been victims of sexual violence within the Church since 1950.
