For months, young Catholics all over the planet have been preparing for WYD, World Youth Days, an international meeting taking place every 3 years in a different country each time. This time, it is in Lisbon, Portugal, that hundreds of thousands of young people will gather around the sovereign pontiff, Pope Francis, whose arrival is scheduled for tomorrow.
Barely two months after an abdominal operation followed by ten days of hospitalization, the 86-year-old pope is expected Wednesday morning in the Portuguese capital, for his 42nd trip abroad since his election in 2013.
About a million faithful could participate in the final mass which he will say on Sunday on the site of a former landfill located on the edge of the Tagus estuary, in the inner suburbs.
The kick-off of this week of cultural and spiritual meetings will be given on Tuesday at 6 p.m. GMT with a mass in a park in the city center, presided over by the Cardinal-Patriarch of Lisbon, which could gather some 300,000 people, always according to the local authorities.
“I really want to see lots of young people inspired by Christ, who share my faith and who live it together. It makes me feel a little closer to heaven,” 18-year-old Spanish pilgrim Manuel Oliva told AFP.
Around the hill where the first ceremony of these WYDs will be held, postponed for a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, several streets were cordoned off to allow young Catholics to access them on foot.
In the morning, nearly 40,000 jubilant French-speaking pilgrims met at the gates of the city. Wrapped in blue, white and red flags, or their faces made up in the colors of France, they sang in chorus while waving flags.
“It’s going to be amazing, all this Christian youth coming together. I came to show that we Christians are not alone,” said Gabriel Forestier, a 28-year-old engineer from Amiens in northern France.
“This is a unique event in its scale”, commented the day before the Cardinal-Patriarch of Lisbon and highest prelate of the Portuguese Church, Manuel Clemente, recalling that the number of pilgrims expected represents a tenth of the Portuguese population. of 10 million inhabitants.
Mobilizing 16,000 members of the police and emergency services, the WYD represents “the largest international event” ever organized in Portugal, ahead of Euro 2004 or the 1998 World Expo, said Prime Minister Antonio Costa.
Despite his fragile health, the first Latin American pope has given himself a particularly busy schedule, with around ten speeches and around twenty meetings.
While the Catholic Church is in full reflection on its future in the face of the challenge of secularization, the Argentinian Jesuit, who is very popular with young people, should address themes that are dear to them, such as ecology or social justice. .
Upon his arrival in Portugal on Wednesday, Jorge Bergoglio will speak to the authorities and the clergy of the Iberian country. On Thursday and Friday, he will meet young people from different groups as well as volunteers, and on Saturday morning he will make a whirlwind visit to the city-sanctuary of Fatima (Centre), where he had already visited in 2017.
The Vatican has not officially confirmed it but, according to the Portuguese Episcopal Conference, the pope must also meet privately with victims of sexual assaults on minors committed by members of the clergy, six months after the publication of a shocking report by a commission of independent experts.
According to the survey carried out at the request of the Catholic hierarchy, at least 4,815 minors have been victims of sexual violence within the Portuguese Church since 1950.
No details of the meeting with the Portuguese victims have been released. “I know it will take place and it will be disclosed, but I myself don’t know where it will be or with how many people,” Mr. Clemente said.
“On the part of the Portuguese Church, there is total commitment to settling this issue,” he stressed, however.
