World Youth Day 2023 at Lisbon

Lisbon (Portugal).  From 1 to 6 August 2023, the city of Lisbon, Portugal hosted the 36^th World Youth Day. Thousands of young people from all over the world reached the capital to experience, together with their own groups, the ecclesial youth event par excellence, established by Saint John Paul II in 1985.

“Beautiful and serene young people” Mother Chiara Cazzuola defined them in her Messagge for August 5 – “who are lively but composed, polite and kind in the airports, on the streets, in the churches, in public places. They offer us a particular vision of youth and of the Church. It is a young, dynamic, smiling Church, full of hope, in stark contrast to the statistics which highlight its inevitable decline, lack of flowering, certain death. We are contemplating a Church that is young and alive.”

On their faces there was joy and the desire to fully live the first edition of WYD after the pandemic, for many the first experience with such a large number of people, estimated at around one and a half million at the Vigil at Parque Teju, gathered around the Holy Father. The pilgrims’ journeys were different, hosted in the parishes, works, schools, families in Lisbon or in the adjacent Municipalities, where they met in linguistic groups, to listen to the Catechesis and then all gathered together for the main scheduled appointments.

“I want you to feel at home, in this common home where we will live World Youth Day. Welcome!” With these words the Patriarch of Lisbon, Cardinal Manuel Clemente, on 1 August welcomed the first groups arriving in Lisbon in Parque Eduardo VII, already packed with pilgrims waving their flags. In the homily of the opening Mass of WYD, the Cardinal underlined the meaning of the journey, “starting from afar or near, you have set out on the journey. It is very important to go on the journey. And this is how we must face life itself, as a journey to travel, making each day a new stage”.

In the same park, even more crowded with young people, citizens, and tourists, the welcoming ceremony of Pope Francis who had arrived in the city the previous day, took place on 3 August. The Pope said he was happy to be in Lisbon, to hear the “lovely noise” of the young people, and to be “infected” by their joy.

“You are not here by chance. The Lord has called you… We are called by name… We have been called because we are loved… just as we are.” And again, “In the Church there is room for everyone, everyone, everyone,” are the expressions that resonated strongly even in the great via della Libertà leading to the Park and in the adjacent streets, equipped with giant screens and loudspeakers.

Of great visual impact, and also of involvement and intense prayer, was the Via Crucis of 4 August, with choreography and movements on the terraces of the great blue wall that overlooked the stage, with profound meditations and the testimonies of three young people.

“Today you will walk with Jesus. Jesus is the Way and we will walk with Him, because He walked”, the Holy Father began in his discourse as he literally accompanied the young people on their way of the Cross, asking them to “open the windows” of their soul, to think without fear of their sufferings, worries, and miseries, to let their tears be dried by Jesus with the desire “that their soul will smile again.”

There were many gestures of Pope Francis during his stay in Lisbon. He confessed some young people at the Vasco de Gama Garden; he had lunch with others in the Apostolic Nunciature. He met university students, young people from Scholas Occurrentes, and representatives of assistance and charity centers. He prayed the Holy Rosary with the sick young people in Fatima; he met with the 25,000 volunteers…

However, one of the most awaited moments of WYD was undoubtedly the Vigil on 5 August at Parque Teju, the large area on the banks of the river, reached by the pilgrims after long walks in the sun, singing and joking so as not to feel tired, almost with wings on their feet, to “quickly” reach their own sector on which to spread out the mats while awaiting the Pope’s arrival.

As the sun was setting, once again for those who were not at the first WYD, the choreographies are impressive and leave one breathless at the spectacle of the luminous drones that draw the words “Follow me” and “Arise” in the sky in different languages. The silence becomes palpable with the entrance on the stage of the Blessed Sacrament for adoration, a “perfect” silence, despite the number of people; a silence full of prayer, among the young people kneeling on the ground, in an intense dialogue with the One who called them by name to live this experience of grace.

Joy is the main theme of Pope Francis’ talk, the joy of meeting young people, the joy of Mary, the joy of mission, the joy that others – parents, grandparents, friends, priests, religious, catechists, animators, teachers – have prepared to receive, remaining “the roots” of joy.

“The joy that came through those roots is what we have to give, because we have roots of joy. And likewise, we can be roots of joy for others. It’s not about bringing a passing joy, a joy of the moment; it is about bringing a joy that creates roots… how can we become roots of joy?”.

In concluding, the Pope leaves some ideas, “Walk, and if you fall, get up; walk with a goal; train every day in life. In life, nothing is free; everything must be paid for. Only one thing is free, the love of Jesus! So, with this free gift that we have – the love of Jesus – and with the desire to walk, let us walk in hope, look to our roots, and move forward, without fear. Do not be afraid.”

The real mandate comes upon waking up – after a night spent under the stars, partly meeting new friends in the streets between sectors and partly resting – in the Eucharistic Celebration of World Youth Day concelebrated by all the Bishops and priests who accompanied them:

“Shine is the first word, be bright; listen, so as not to go astray; and finally, the third word: do not be afraid. Do not be afraid”.

At WYD 2023 – defined by the Pope on the return plane as “the best prepared” and with an “impressive” number of young people, also present and hosted in Estoril in the Province House of O. L. of Fatima (POR),  were Mother Chiara Cazzuola, Superior General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and some Councilors who, in addition to having participated in the SYM Day and the main moments of the WYD, also visited the Vocational Fair at Vasco da Gama Park with the stand of the Salesian Youth Movement.

The experience then concluded with the pilgrimage to Fatima on 7 August, where Mother and the Rector Major were able to meet again with some groups of young people from the SYM and pray with them at the places of the apparitions to the little shepherds.

In a video-interview Mother Chiara, who experienced WYD for the first time both as an FMA and as Superior General, thanked in a special way the FMA of the POR Province, the Salesians of Don Bosco, and the whole Salesian Family for the huge involvement of people in such a great work and underlined, “These encounters are successful because behind them there is a whole communion of intentions and an effective and valuable collaboration. Thus, success is given more by the grace of communion and by the grace of God than by our human energies.”

Photos: Flickr FMA