World Youth Day pilgrims around the globe are making final preparations for their trip to Lisbon, Portugal, for the gathering of teens and young adults.
Among the more than half-million registrants are 131 pilgrims from the Arlington diocese and Pope Francis himself, who with the help of two Portuguese college students, registered for the Aug. 1-6 event that he will lead. The theme for the gathering is a passage from Luke’s Gospel, “Mary arose and went with haste.”
Originally scheduled for 2022 and delayed because of the pandemic, the early prep for the diocesan-led trip was difficult because people were still hesitant to commit to travel, said Christine Najarian, assistant director of the diocesan Office of Youth, Campus, and Young Adult Ministries.
“Once we got momentum, our group grew quickly to be one of the largest diocesan groups coming from the United States,” she said.
The Arlington group includes a third each of teens, young adults, and adult leaders and staff, according to Kevin Bohli, executive director of the OYCYAM. This WYD will be Bohli’s seventh and Najarian’s sixth.
The group will leave July 28 and spend the first couple days visiting Fatima, including the Basilica of the Holy Trinity and the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, which the pope will visit Aug. 5. The diocesan group will have the option of walking the Stations of the Cross and joining a rosary procession. Stops on the way back to Lisbon will include Aljustrel, the birthplace of Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia[KS1] , the three peasant children who witnessed Mary’s apparitions in 1917, to urge prayers for peace and the conversion of Russia; the Loca de Anjo, where the three children often gathered; and the Holy Way, little chapels that mark the passion of Jesus. In Lisbon, they will visit the birthplace of St. Anthony, the Cathedral of Se and the Castle of Lisbon.
The WYD activities are well-planned — offering catechesis, talks, concerts, prayer, confession opportunities, Stations of the Cross, Mass, and an Aug. 2 U.S. National Pilgrim Gathering with Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire and bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minn.
Pope Francis arrives in Lisbon Aug. 3. The pilgrims will walk about 6 miles to set up camp outdoors for an Aug. 5 vigil with the pope and his Mass the following day. Then they head back to the states Aug. 7.
Bohli said the gathering, typically held every two to three years, began as more of a young adult event but after WYD in Denver in 1993, many parishes encouraged teens to attend. The diocese has been organizing WYD pilgrimages since 2002.
“Nothing strengthens the faith life of a young person quite like gathering in a field with literally hundreds of thousands of other young Catholics,” Bohli said. “We always teach about the universality of the church, and now these teens experience it in one spectacular moment.”
Pope Francis said if some of the attendees say they are going “only for tourism,” each person is going “because deep down, they are craving to participate, to share, to tell their experience and receive the experience of others.” In a video released in January, Pope Francis told registrants, “Open your heart to other cultures, to other young men and women” attending World Youth Day.
Read more
Read the back story of the Marian apparitions in Fatima.
