This gathering of young Catholics was initiated in 1984 by St. John Paul II and takes place every two or three years.

Photo: Disclosure/JMJ Lisbon 2023.

Newsroom(08/08/2023 12:37, Gaudium Press) Last Sunday, 6, in front of a million and a half young people gathered in Parque Tejo to participate in the closing ceremony of World Youth Day (WYD) Lisbon 2023, Pope Francis announced the location where the next edition of WYD will be held.

Youth Jubilee will be celebrated in Rome in 2025

Before revealing the country that will host the 41st World Youth Day, the Pontiff invited young people from all over the world to participate in the Jubilee of Youth that will be celebrated in the city of Rome in 2025.

Soon after, Francis announced that “the next World Youth Day will take place in Asia: it will be in South Korea, in Seoul. And so, in 2027, from the western border of Europe, it will move to the Far East. And this is a beautiful sign of the universality of the Church and of the dream of unity of which you are witnesses.”

WYD to be celebrated in Asia again after 32 years

The choice of South Korea to host the main international youth meeting held by the Catholic Church in 2027 is a milestone for the local Church, since after 32 years, WYD will be held again in Asia. The last time this happened was in 1995, when the meeting was celebrated in Manila, Philippines, bringing together about 4 million people.

The Archdiocese of Seoul had already expressed its desire to host an edition of WYD numerous times. Its Archbishop, Peter Chung Soon-taick, has previously stated that this “would be an extraordinary opportunity to relaunch youth ministry in a country struggling with demographic winter”. (EPC)

Compiled by Teresa Joseph