With preparations ramping up for the upcoming World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, Portugal, next summer, participants can expect an interreligious and ecumenical focus, said the Canadian coordinator for the event.

Just under a year away, the hype is already beginning around World Youth Day (WYD) 2023 to be held in Lisbon, Portugal.

It’s 20 years to the (give or take) day since Pope John Paul II visited Canada, and Canada is once again graced with another papal visit.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis has agreed with a recommendation by the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life to postpone by one year the next gatherings of the World Meeting of Families and World Youth Day.

VATICAN CITY -- The fast-paced nature of the digital age can cause young men and women to focus more on capturing moments for their social media rather than experiencing them, Pope Francis told Catholic young people.

VATICAN CITY -- Announcing the themes for the next three World Youth Day celebrations, Pope Francis called on young men and women to meditate on the path of Christian life that God has called them to walk.

The cross I wear around my neck each day is a relatively large wooden one made by young people living in the poorest and most dangerous areas of Colombia. It is one of hundreds of thousands that they made as part of a project supported by Development and Peace. The crosses were given as a special gift from St. John Paul II at the World Youth Day papal Mass in Toronto on July 28, 2002. 

Young people are not the future of the Church — they are the present.

think I had a lot of unanswered questions before my trip to World Youth Day. But God answered questions I didn’t even know I had. 

“Put service and mission first and you will see that everything else will follow.” - Pope Francis, January 27, Panamá WYD Volunteer Gathering