Over 600,000 people from 181 countries have so far registered for the Church's World Youth Day (WYD) in Poland, while 1.5 million more are expected to join the celebrations after the arrival of the Pope on 27 July.
"This great festival of faith will send the world an important call to hope - and a summons to peace which could change that world," the Cardinal of Krakow, Stanislaw Dziwisz, said at a press conference last weekend. He urged the faithful not to be afraid to travel, saying "Poland is a safe country even though the [security] situation in Europe is causing much disquiet".
The 77-year-old cardinal made the appeal as Krakow officials issued a new report on preparations for the week-long event, which will take place at 260 separate locations in and around the city. The report said 184 local schools had been requisitioned to provide overnight accommodation, with camping facilities for 28,000. It added that two million special city maps and 625,000 'pilgrim guides' had also been printed for participants, who will include 79,000 Italians, 36,000 Spaniards and 35,000 French Christians.
Pope Francis is to become the third pontiff to travel to the former Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau during his own 27-31 July visit for the Youth Day. His itinerary also includes: holding an evening prayer vigil near the Wieliczka saltmine; praying before the relics of St Faustina Kowalska at Krakow's Divine Mercy centre; and leading an open-air eucharist at the Jasna Gora national sanctuary to mark the 1050th anniversary of Poland's 966 Christian conversion.
Planning for the WYD celebrations, the second to be held in Poland since the 1991 event attended by St John Paul II at Czestochowa, have coincided with international disputes over the newly elected centre-right government of premier Beata Szydlo, which was accused in March by the Council of Europe's rights-monitoring Venice Commission of "endangering democracy and human rights" with its proposed reforms.
However, after visiting the Vatican last Friday, Szydlo said she had assured Francis that "all efforts were being made" to ensure security and mass youth participation during his visit, which will be the twelfth by a Pope in 37 years to the traditionally Catholic country.
World Youth Day will run from 25-31 July.
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