A vast crowd of hundreds of thousands of worshipers, chanting and waving flags, gathered on Thursday August 3, at a Lisbon park to joyously welcome Pope Francis during a significant Catholic youth festival.
Hundreds of thousands of chanting and flag-waving worshipers packed a Lisbon park on Thursday for a welcome ceremony for Pope Francis at a major Catholic youth festival.
Pilgrims shrieked and waved as the 86-year-old pontiff, surrounded by bodyguards, slowly drove by on his popemobile through the 26-hectare (64-acres) hillside Eduardo VII park.
This is the pope’s first mass event with participants at this year’s World Youth Day, which is in fact a six-day international Catholic jamboree.
The pope arrived in the Portuguese capital on Wednesday, when he met with the clergy and victims of clerical sexual abuse.
Earlier on Thursday the pope urged young people to combine fighting to save the planet with tackling poverty during an address to students at Lisbon’s Catholic University.
At the foundation, he answered questions from youths before putting the final brushstroke on a mural that the community has been working on.
Organizers expect a million people from all over the world for the week of festive, cultural and spiritual events.
World Youth Day, created in 1986 by John Paul II, is the largest Catholic gathering in the world and will feature a wide range of events, including concerts and prayer sessions.
This edition, initially scheduled for August 2022 but postponed because of the pandemic, will be the fourth for Francis after Rio de Janeiro in 2013, Krakow in 2016 and Panama in 2019.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
