The president of the World Youth Day (WYD) Lisbon 2023 Foundation announced today that he will visit Israeli and Palestinian young people who could not be present at the event that will take place in Lisbon, with the presence of Pope Francis.
In front of journalists at the WYD headquarters in Lisbon, Américo Aguiar announced that he would have to leave shortly “to visit the young people of Israel and Palestine who cannot come to the day”, similar to the visit to Ukraine he made between Saturday and Monday, where he contacted young people and families affected by the war.
The auxiliary bishop of Lisbon said that the aim is to give “a sign, to meet young people who for various reasons, more than known to all, unfortunately cannot participate in the day”.
“And we decided to give this sign, both in relation to Ukraine and to the Holy Land, with special significance. Since this event is precisely a witness to the living Christ, there is nothing like going to the land of the master to be close to these young people in a special way and to tell them how good it would be if one day, at a WYD not too far away, no young person in the world had an obstacle to participating in WYD,” he said.
Américo Aguiar indicated that his hope is that there will be no economic, ideological or security obstacles in the future and that every young person will be able to participate in World Youth Day because that is what they want.
“This is the message that we carry and that we also want to bring to young people from all over the world who are already beginning to flow into Portugal,” he said.
The president of the WYD Lisbon 2023 Foundation said that “young people are already starting to arrive in several dioceses in the country” and that “there are around 70, 80 thousand who come the week before [the journey, which starts on August 1] and are spread across all dioceses in the country, including the Azores and Madeira”, as a way of promoting territorial cohesion.
