According to a press release from the organizers, the announcement was made today, Monday, October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. It is very important for the youngsters to know the date in order to begin the coordintion of the Day, reads the text.

“We hope that the 22 months leading to the World Youth Day will be a time of evangelization for all”, says Manuel Clemente, Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon.  Presently, the working groups that make up the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), the executive body in charge of the preparation and organization of WYD Lisbon 2023, already have more than 400 volunteers, most of them Portuguese. In each of the 21 dioceses of Portugal there are also Diocesan Organizing Commissions, in charge of promoting the preparations for WYD.

The communiqué reports that last year, the most important highlights were the launch of the official WYD image in October 2020, the welcoming of the WYD symbols in Rome in November 2020 during a celebration with Pope Francis, and the announcement of the official WYD anthem in January 2021.

World Youth Day since St. John Paul II

World Youth Day (WYD) is an event that goes around the world and was established by Pope John Paul II in 1985. Since then, it has distinguished itself as a time of encounter and fellowship for millions of people around the world.

The first edition was held in 1986 in Rome, and since then it has been held in the following cities: Buenos Aires (1987), Santiago de Compostela (1989), Czestochowa (1991), Denver (1993), Manila (1995), Paris (1997), Rome (2000), Toronto (2002), Cologne (2005), Sydney (2008), Madrid (2011), Rio de Janeiro (2013), Krakow (2016) and Panama (2019).

On January 27, 2019, in Panama, during the celebration of World Youth Day, Cardinal Kevin Farrel, Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, announced that Lisbon would be the next city to host the event. Originally scheduled for the summer of 2022, WYD Lisbon was postponed by one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Source: Vatican News