World Youth Day (WYD) is the gathering of young people from all over the world with the Pope.

It is also a pilgrimage, a celebration of youth, an expression of the universal Church and an intense moment of evangelization for the youth world. It is a new stimulus to the faith, hope and charity of the entire host country community.

The World Youth Day (WYD) was instituted by St. John Paul II, in 1985, and from that moment on it has been understood as a moment of gathering and sharing for millions of people around the world. The location for WYD is chosen on an alternate basis and the continent changes in each edition.

The World Youth Day (WYD) Lisbon 2023 will take place from August 01-06 2023. Over the course of the week, young people from all over the world are welcomed, mainly in public (gymnasiums, schools, pavilions …) and parish facilities or family homes. In addition to the moments of prayer, sharing and leisure, the young people enrolled in this celebration participate in various initiatives organized by the WYD team, in different locations across the host city.

The highlights are the celebrations (central features) for which the Pope is present, such as the welcoming and opening ceremony, the Way of the Cross, the vigil and, on the last day, the closing mass.

The WYD symbols, the pilgrim cross and the icon of Our Lady Salus Populi Romani, have also been on pilgrimage through the portuguese dioceses. Before the pilgrimage through the Dioceses of Portugal, WYD symbols walked on pilgrimages through Angola, Poland and Spain (from July to October 2021). Between November 2021 and July 2023, the WYD symbols will go on pilgrimage through the 21 dioceses of Portugal, announcing the biggest youth meeting of the world that will take place in the summer of 2023, in Lisbon.

WEBINAR World Youth Day Lisbon 2023 (June 9, 2022)