More than 1.5 million people attended the closing Mass of World Youth Day in Lisbon’s Tejo Park on 6 August, celebrated by Pope Francis at the end of his five-day visit to Portugal.
It was the largest Catholic gathering since the end of the pandemic and escaped serious disruption from the scorching temperature. Organisers set up water fountains for participants, sprayed them with water and distributed hats.
Pope Francis had established a strong rapport with attendees over his visit was clearly happy to be with the exuberant young crowd, who cheered every time he waved to them.
Many had arrived in the park the previous evening for a vigil led by Pope Francis that included music and dance, testimonies, eucharistic adoration and a screening of The Letter. At one point, drones flying overhead spelt out “Rise Up” and “Follow me”.
They then slept out overnight, the good-natured atmosphere earning the event the moniker “Catholic Woodstock”.
Pope Francis concelebrated the Sunday Mass with 30 cardinals, over 700 bishops and 10,000 priests from many countries.
In his homily, Francis link the experience of the young people at World Youth Day to Jesus’ Transfiguration. He urged them “to be radiant in your youthfulness, to bring the light of the Gospel everywhere, and to be beacons of hope in these dark times”.
“In the wake of these grace-filled days, we can also ask an important question,” the Pope said. “What will we take back with us as we come down from the mountain to resume our daily lives?”
He urged them “to shine, to listen and to be unafraid”, and won cheers when he said that “the Church and the world need you, the young, as much as the earth needs rain”.
“The only time it is legitimate to look down on someone from above,” he added, “is to help them get up. How many times do we see people looking at us like that, from above? It’s sad.”
At the end of Mass, he announced that there will be a Jubilee for young people in Rome in 2025 and that the next World Youth Day will be held in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, in 2027.
The entire South Korean hierarchy was present for the announcement, including Archbishop Peter Chung Soon of Seoul, with 1,000 Korean attendees who ran in front of Pope Francis waving the Korean flag.
Among the crowd, Korean-American pilgrims from Holy Angels Korean Catholic Church in Philadelphia were visibly delighted.
At the Angelus after the Sunday Mass, Pope Francis urged all to be peacemakers in a world rife with conflict.
“Dear friends, allow me, as an older person, to share with you, young people, a dream that I carry within me,” he said. “It is the dream of peace, the dream of young people praying for peace, living in peace and building a peaceful future.”
He spent Saturday morning at the shrine of Fátima’s, praying silently for peace before a statue of the Virgin Mary.
World Youth Day had earlier featured a Via Crucis in Lisbon’s Eduardo VII Park on the Friday afternoon, attended by around 800,000 people.
Matilde Trocado, the artistic director, said that a youthful and contemporary approach to the 14 Stations saw each one focused on a specific “fragility” of young people across the globe, including mental health, violence, solitude, and a concern about the destruction of Creation. The dramatic staging involved the participation of 50 young people from 21 countries.
Francis’ message was one of inclusivity, insisting that “everyone, everyone, everyone” has a place in the Church.
He invited the young pilgrims to love one another, to help each other when they fall, to never stop getting back up and to “ride the wave” of life.
During his in-flight press conference as he returned to Rome on Sunday, Francis said he was particularly conscious of the crisis of mental health and suicide among the young.
On the Wednesday, Pope Francis met privately with Portuguese survivors of clerical sexual abuse for more than an hour. He said later that bishops who have not adopted a “zero tolerance” policy toward abuse need to “take charge of that irresponsibility”.
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