when did the pope visit portugal

Pope Francis begins Apostolic Journey to Portugal

By Deborah Castellano Lubov 

Pope Francis has departed on his 42nd Apostolic Journey abroad to the European nation of Portugal for the 37th World Youth Day.

The ITA-Airways papal flight left Rome's Fiumicino International Airport at about 8 AM local time Wednesday morning, carrying the Pope and the journalists following the journey from the papal flight.

On Wednesday morning, before leaving his Vatican residence, Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis met with some fifteen people, confirmed Matteo Bruni, Director of the Holy See Press Office. "Among them were some young people, girls and boys, who are spending time in a rehabilitation community and are therefore unable to attend World Youth Day."

With them, were three grandparents with their grandchildren.

"This meeting, as well as the World Day of Grandparents and Elderly just celebrated, underlines the bond between generations, which can support each other and learn from each other," Bruni's statement concluded.

The flight is scheduled to arrive at Figo Maduro air base in Portugal’s capital of Lisbon around 10 am local time.

When the Holy Father lands in Lisbon, he will be received by a welcoming ceremony.

Immediately afterwards, he will be greeted at the National Palace in Belèm by the President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

Also in the Belèm district, in the cultural centre, the Holy Father will meet the authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps.

Following lunch, the Pope has two appointments before returning to the Apostolic Nunciature this evening where he will reside during his Portuguese stay.

At 4.45 p.m. in the nunciature, he will meet with the Prime Minister.

At 5.30 p.m., in the famous Monastery dos Jerònimos, he will celebrate Vespers with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, seminarians and pastoral workers.

At the completion of this Journey on Sunday, marking the Pope Francis' second visit to Portugal since the start of his pontificate, he will have visited 60 countries since the start of his pontificate, given that Portugal was already included in this count after his May 2017 visit for the centenary of the apparitions in Fatima.

As is tradition for Pope Francis before and after Apostolic Journeys, the Holy Father made a special stop to Rome's Marian Basilica, Santa Maria Maggiore, to once again, entrust this travel to the Blessed Mother's protection.

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APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS to PORTUGAL

ON THE OCCASION OF THE XXXVII WORLD YOUTH DAY

2 - 6 AUGUST 2023

• Missal for the Apostolic Journey
• Photo Gallery
• Message of the Holy Father for the XXXVII World Youth Day

Wednesday, 2 August 2023

ROME - LISBON

Thursday, 3 August 2023

LISBONA - CASCAIS - LISBONA

Friday, 4 August 2023

Saturday, 5 August 2023

LISBON - FATIMA - LISBON

Sunday, 6 August 2023 

LISBON - ROME

Holy See Press Office Bulletin , 6 June 2023

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What countries did Pope Francis visit in 2023 and what did he say?

By Peter Pinedo

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 30, 2023 / 07:00 am

Pope Francis maintained a busy travel schedule in 2023, visiting six different countries on three separate continents despite being one of the oldest popes in Church history and enduring ongoing struggles with poor health. 

Francis turned 87 this month, and in March he celebrated his 10th year as pope. Although his year was marked by several hospital stays, struggles with bronchitis, and sciatica that often confined him to a wheelchair — as well as a canceled trip to Dubai for COP28 due to health issues — the pontiff still managed to make five international trips, called “apostolic journeys.”

Here is where he went. 

Africa: Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan

The pope’s first apostolic journey of 2023 was to the African continent, where despite years of wars and ongoing persecutions the Church has seen its greatest growth and where regular Mass attendance is higher than anywhere else on the globe.

Francis was in Africa for six days, Jan. 31–Feb. 5, during which time he visited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan. While there, Francis spoke out against the violence racking the continent and against international powers seeking to exploit African countries for their gain.

“Hands off Africa! Stop choking Africa: Africa is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered,” Francis said in his first speech in the DRC on Jan. 31. 

“I have greatly desired to be here and now at last I have come to bring you the closeness, the affection, and the consolation of the entire Catholic Church,” Francis also said. “I am here to embrace you and to remind you that you yourselves are of inestimable worth, that the Church and the pope have confidence in you, and that they believe in your future, the future that is in your hands, your hands.” 

On Feb. 1 the pope celebrated a special papal Mass in Kinshasa , the DRC’s capital city, which was attended by more than 1 million African faithful. Video taken before the Mass showed the massive crowds of Catholics dancing and singing songs, including a joyful chant of “Maman Maria” (“Mama Mary” in French), as they awaited Pope Francis’ arrival.

"Maman Maria!" ("Mother Mary!" in French) Video by @TurkElias who is on the ground in Kinshasa, DRC for Mass with Pope Francis pic.twitter.com/yBMG1Bktyj — Hannah Brockhaus (@HannahBrockhaus) February 1, 2023

Joyful scenes from colleagues on the ground in Kinshasa, DRC, where Pope Francis will soon celebrate Mass. Follow @TurkElias @Gianluca_Teseo and @cnalive for more! pic.twitter.com/kyFCiOHZVu — Hannah Brockhaus (@HannahBrockhaus) February 1, 2023

Europe: Hungary

Next, Francis visited Budapest, the capital of the central European nation of Hungary, April 28–30.

The pontiff’s journey to the post-Soviet nation that borders Ukraine was themed “Christ Is Our Future.”

During the trip, the pope focused his addresses on the need for European nations to cooperate with one another and recapture a spirit of fraternal unity and pursue “creative efforts for peace.”

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At general audience, Pope Francis explains the correct use of Christian freedom

Using the city of Budapest’s “Chain Bridge” as an example, Francis said the bridge “helps us to envision that kind of Europe since it is composed of many great and diverse links that derive their solidity and strength from being joined together. In this regard, the Christian faith can be a resource, and Hungary can act as a ‘bridge builder’ by drawing upon its specific ecumenical character. Here, different confessions live together without friction, cooperating respectfully and constructively.”

He thanked the Church in Hungary for its “generous and wide-ranging service to charity” and for welcoming “with enthusiasm” many Ukrainian refugees.

More than 4 million Ukrainians have crossed into Hungary since the beginning of the war with Russia. 

As Hungary grapples with a growing loss of faith and increasing irreligiosity, Francis encouraged Hungarian clergy in an April 28 address, saying that solutions will “come from the tabernacle and not the computer.”

To combat “bleak defeatism and a worldly conformism,” Francis said, “the Gospel gives us new eyes to see” as well as discernment that enables us to “approach our own time with openness, but also with a prophetic spirit.”

(Story continues below)

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Europe: portugal.

Francis visited Portugal from Aug. 2–6 to participate in the 2023 World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon.

While in Portugal, the pope met with a wide array of youth, government officials, and religious leaders, participated in an outdoor Stations of the Cross with an estimated 800,000 young people, visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, and celebrated a special closing Mass that was attended by about 1.5 million faithful.

Looking out on the field filled with over a million young faithful after the closing Mass on Aug. 6, Francis echoed the famous words of St. John Paul II, WYD’s founder, saying: “Dear young people, I would like to look into the eyes of each one of you and tell you: Be not afraid, be not afraid.” 

“I tell you something very beautiful: It is no longer me, it is Jesus himself who is looking at you in this moment, he is looking at you,” the pope continued. “He knows you, he knows the heart of each one of you, he knows the life of each one of you, he knows the joys, he knows the sadness, the successes, and the failures.”

Francis encouraged the young people assembled, telling them: “You are a sign of peace for the world, showing how different nationalities, languages, and histories can unite instead of divide. You are the hope of a different world.”

After thanking the young people, the pope urged them to move forward with the light of the Holy Spirit, exclaiming: “Onward!”

Asia: Mongolia

In September, Francis traveled 5,600 miles to make the first papal trip in history to the central Asian country of Mongolia.

With a population of just 3.3 million, Mongolia has only 1,450 Catholics, making up less than 1% of the country’s total populace.

While the Catholic population in Mongolia is one of the smallest in the world, “being little is not a problem,” Pope Francis assured the local religious leaders while in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaanbaatar. 

“God loves littleness, and through it, he loves to accomplish great things, as Mary herself bears witness,” Pope Francis said Sept. 2.

“Brothers and sisters, do not be concerned about small numbers, limited success, or apparent irrelevance. That is not how God works. Let us keep our gaze fixed on Mary, who in her littleness is greater than the heavens.”

A country sandwiched between China and Russia, Francis called Mongolia a “symbol of religious freedom” in his first speech in the Asian country. He underlined how Mongolia’s democratic government is in a unique position to play “an important role on behalf of world peace.”

Catholics from Hong Kong and mainland China were also among the pilgrims who journeyed to see the pope during his time in Mongolia. Some of the visiting Catholics from China wore masks and sunglasses to shield their identities, a testament to the stark difference in religious freedom in the country on the other side of Mongolia’s southern border.

Francis also sent a special telegram message to Chinese President Xi Jinping and the people of China as he flew through Chinese airspace between Rome and Mongolia.

“I send greetings of good wishes to your excellency and the people of China as I pass through your country’s airspace en route to Mongolia,” the telegram read. “Assuring you of my prayers for the well-being of the nation, I invoke upon all of you the divine blessings of unity and peace.”

Europe: France 

Less than three weeks after his Mongolia trip, the pope traveled again, this time to participate in the “Rencontres Méditerranéennes,” a gathering of young people and bishops in the Mediterranean coastal city of Marseille, France, Sept. 22–23.

Billed as a “cultural festival,” the event was devoted to dialogue on international migration and ecological issues.

Before a memorial to people lost at sea on Sept. 22, Francis said humanity is at a crossroads between fraternity and indifference regarding the migrant crisis.

“We can no longer watch the drama of shipwrecks, caused by the cruel trafficking and the fanaticism of indifference,” he said. “People who are at risk of drowning when abandoned on the waves must be rescued. It is a duty of humanity; it is a duty of civilization.”

At a Mass attended by more than 50,000 at Marseille’s Velodrome Stadium on Sept. 23, Francis told those gathered to be Christians who “leap for joy” in the face of life’s challenges — with hearts ready to encounter the Lord and others.

MARSEILLE, FRANCE 50,000 French came to see Pope Francis in the Velodrome pic.twitter.com/478wFJG57L — Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) September 23, 2023

“We want to be Christians who encounter God in prayer, and our brothers and sisters in love; Christians who leap, pulsate, and receive the fire of the Holy Spirit and then allow ourselves to be set afire by the questions of our day, by the challenges of the Mediterranean, by the cry of the poor — and by the ‘holy utopias’ of fraternity and peace that wait to be realized,” the pope said.

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An Aging Pope Francis Looks to ‘Youth Day’ to Energize Church’s Future

The pope will preside over a gathering of young people from around the world, mindful that the changes he has initiated in the Roman Catholic Church will depend on them.

By Jason Horowitz

Reporting from Rome

Pope Francis, deep into his 80s, slowed by illness and aware that his window for bringing lasting change to the Roman Catholic Church is closing, arrived in Portugal on Wednesday for a weeklong meeting of the world’s young Catholics, in whose hands will rest the ultimate success or failure of his vision for a more pastoral and inclusive faith.

“I am happy to have come to Lisbon, this city of encounter, which embraces many peoples and cultures, and which, in these days, is even more global,” Francis told the country’s leaders in a speech on Wednesday morning in the Presidential Palace, adding that it had become “in a certain sense” a world capital, but also “the capital of the future, because the young are the future.”

Before the visit, the pope, 86, said in video remarks that he wanted “to see a seed for the world’s future” planted in Lisbon, and warned against the church’s becoming a “club” for older people that “will die.” Upon his arrival, he urged the leaders to help realize the dreams of “young people from around the world, who long for unity, peace and fraternity.”

“It is my hope that World Youth Day may be, for the ‘Old Continent,’ an impulse toward universal openness,” he added, referring to Europe, where the church’s following has dwindled as the population ages. “Old,” Francis underlined. “Old, we can say the elderly Continent.”

The gathering is expected to attract about a million people from more than 200 countries, many of them age 16 to 35, and many in sync with Francis’ emphasis on inequality and climate issues.

In remarks, Francis supported their protection of the environment, their campaigning for peace and economic justice, including the redistribution of enormous wealth, and countering demographic decline.

The meeting will also be attended by more than 700 bishops and 20 cardinals. The gathering comes as Portugal grapples with an exploding clerical sexual abuse crisis and as Francis prepares to tackle issues like the role of women and L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics in the church at a major meeting of the world’s bishops that will for the first time include women and laypeople .

As pope, Francis has sought to draw more people into the church by making it more welcoming and close to its people, and less focused on rules and abstractions, power and rank. World Youth Day, and Francis’ emphasis on the young, is a way to keep a lifeline open to the future as the church’s present, especially in the developed world, has been marked by scandals, decreasing numbers and declining cultural relevance.

It is growing more in the developing world, especially Africa and Asia, where young Catholics are more fervent. But those are also places where the church is more conservative.

Francis has steadily filled his hierarchy with prelates in his image, but has also often balked at opportunities to make concrete changes to church policy.

His supporters argue that the death of the retired and deeply conservative Pope Benedict XVI last year freed Francis from an awkward brake. And they say that his own health problems — he recently left the hospital after yet another surgery — have added urgency for him to start walking in a new direction rather than just talking about it.

There is also a view that Francis may be content to prepare the ground for a major shift, and to let his successor take the real leaps. But it is not clear who will follow Francis as pope.

In the meantime, Francis is also taking steps to rejuvenate the church. In a geriatric institution, he has put middle-aged men who share his pastoral approach in charge of major archdioceses like Buenos Aires, Brussels and Madrid. He has appointed cardinals in their 50s — spring chickens for the church — who could vote to select popes for decades to come.

The prelate in charge of World Youth Day, Américo Aguiar, only 49, will become a cardinal at a Sept. 30 ceremony during which Francis will elevate 21 churchmen. Bishop Aguiar will be the second-youngest cardinal after the head of the church in Mongolia, where Francis will travel at the end of August.

Pope John Paul II started World Youth Day in 1986 to demonstrate that the church had a younger, fresher face. The Lisbon event will be the 16th such engagement.

While Francis framed the fraternity of the meeting as an antidote to nationalism and populism, but far from being grass-roots movements, the events are rigorously planned and have not translated into an organic return back into the pews.

The Portuguese church has also sought to portray the event as interreligious, with the participation of Protestants, Muslims and Jews. It was an “event open to all,” Cardinal Manuel Clemente, patriarch of Lisbon, told reporters last month.

That presence is shrinking though, even in once-devout Portugal. The Portuguese Catholic Church, like so many across Europe, has consistently diminished and weakened, even as evangelical Christians, many of them Brazilian, have multiplied their numbers.

Lisbon, once a pious capital, is now a cosmopolitan and increasingly secular city. Newly revealed sexual abuse scandals in the Portuguese church seem destined to accelerate its falling numbers.

In February, a live broadcast of experts appointed by Portugal’s own church leaders reported that at least 4,815 children, most of them 10 to 14 years old, had been abused since 1950. The experts read accounts of some victims in front of the country’s top bishops, and the commission’s leader said that more than 100 priests suspected of abuse still had active church roles at the time of the report’s publication.

Bishop Aguiar has said that Francis will meet with some of those victims during his visit, even as the Portuguese church has waffled on possible reparation payments. Francis is expected to address the issue during his visit.

The distance between the country and the church has also been shown by criticism for the tens of millions of euros directed to finance the event. In the days before the event, a Portuguese artist, Bordalo II, laid out a red carpet made from oversized 500-euro bank notes.

“In a secular state,” the artist wrote, “at a time when many are struggling to keep their homes, their jobs and their dignity, millions of public money are going to sponsor the tour of the Italian multinational.”

That is not the message the Vatican is hoping for.

Instead, Francis was welcomed on Wednesday morning by two children dressed in white and seemed at ease and beamed as he met bishops and joked with local dignitaries before taking a white Toyota hybrid in a motorcade along streets sparsely populated with cheering fans. Arriving at the presidential palace, he walked a few steps with a cane and stood beside President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa for national anthems and the ceremonial shooting of rifles.

Francis will seek to animate young crowds with talk of peace on a continent once again marked by war. Francis himself has made fruitless, and critics say counterproductive, efforts to broker peace in Ukraine that Ukrainians have worried play into Russian hands. After a halting start, Francis has more clearly put the fault of the war on Russian aggression.

The pope is likely to stress his calls for peace on Saturday, when he is scheduled to return to the Shrine of Fátima, a pilgrimage site north of Lisbon where tradition holds that the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in 1917. She delivered a prophecy that the world would be destroyed if it did not convert, and that the pope could stay God’s angry hand if he brought atheists and Communist Russia to her “immaculate heart.”

Last year, Francis consecrated all the world, but especially Russia and Ukraine, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary before a statue of Our Lady of Fatima in St. Peter’s Basilica.

In his remarks to leaders on Wednesday, Francis sought to carve out a more concrete space for Europe in delivering peace.

“We are sailing amid storms on the ocean of history, and we sense the need for courageous courses of peace. With deep love for Europe, and in the spirit of dialogue that distinguishes this continent, we might ask her: ‘Where are you sailing, if you are not showing the world paths of peace, creative ways for bringing an end to the war in Ukraine and to the many other conflicts causing so much bloodshed?’”

An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated when a prayer vigil held by Pope Francis took place on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro. It was in 2013, not 2018.

How we handle corrections

Jason Horowitz is the Rome bureau chief, covering Italy, the Vatican, Greece and other parts of Southern Europe. He previously covered the 2016 presidential campaign, the Obama administration and Congress, with an emphasis on political profiles and features. More about Jason Horowitz

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Official program for Pope's visit to Portugal revealed

The Vatican today unveiled the official programme for Pope Francis' apostolic visit to Portugal for World Youth Day (WYD) Lisbon 2023. The first contact with pilgrims from all over the world is scheduled for June 3, at the Colina do Encontro (Eduardo VII Park).

As already announced by the Holy See, Pope Francis will arrive in Lisbon on August 2, having scheduled a meeting with the President of the Republic, Authorities, Civil Society, the Diplomatic Corps and the Prime Minister.

In a press conference, Archbishop Manuel Clemente, Cardinal-Patriarch of Lisbon, highlighted the "unprecedented richness" that it will be to receive young people from different countries of the world, from diverse cultures, in Lisbon. "It has been a successive involvement, which continues, of thousands of people, the overwhelming majority of whom are volunteers, who are working to make this event a very large projection throughout the world," he assured.

[WYD] marks a generation. With all these people who are working on the Day and with everything that will happen to those who participate in it, it will be the generation 2023. It is very striking and very involving in the sense of a more ecumenical society, more in solidarity and more fraternal

D. Américo Aguiar, President of the WYD Lisbon 2023 Foundation, presented the program that has been released and said that part of it sought to meet the "beloved themes" of Pope Francis, such as caring for the "common home," fraternity among all, and education. In addition, Archbishop Américo Aguiar also highlighted the search for "intergenerational encounter, to which the Pope also invites us so much" and that "the Journey leaves a unique legacy.

We want young people to be present on the Day. We are working so that, both on the hill of encounter and in the field of grace, young people with disabilities can be there

Also Carlos Moedas, Mayor of Lisbon, expressed "joy and immense gratitude for Lisbon having been the city chosen for this World Youth Day". "We are ready," said the mayor of Lisbon, less than two months before WYD Lisbon 2023.

I sincerely ask all Lisbon families to open their homes to all those who will be here during these days

Learn more about the official program for the Pope's apostolic visit here .

[updated on 7 June 2023]

D. Edward J. Burns expresses gratitude for the organisation of WYD and the welcome

What WYD Lisbon 2023 presented that no previous edition had

The meeting of young people from all over the world from different points of view and paths

Auxiliar Bishop Américo Aguiar gives a message to all WYD Lisbon 2023 pilgrims

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Pope Francis Will Be in Portugal for 5 Days. Here's What He Will Visit

Pope Francis is beginning a five-day trip to Portugal for World Youth Day

Pope Francis Will Be in Portugal for 5 Days. Here's What He Will Visit

Ana Brigida

A group of Vietnamese from the United States travelling to attend International World Youth Day stand in front of the 16th century Jeronimos monastery in Lisbon, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. Pope Francis will visit the monastery when he arrives Aug. 2 to attend the event that is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of young Catholic faithful to Lisbon and goes on until Aug. 6. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Pope Francis begins a five-day trip to Portugal on Wednesday for World Youth Day , the international Catholic jamboree that is expected to gather around 1 million people.

While in Portugal, Francis will visit the place from where 15th- and 16th-century Portuguese explorers set sail on world-changing voyages to Africa, Asia and South America, a church and monastery that are unique architectural gems, and one of the world’s most popular Catholic shrines where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to children.

Here’s a look at where Francis will go.

BELEM NATIONAL PALACE

The official reception is at the Palácio Nacional de Belém, which is the Portuguese president’s residence, also known as the pink palace.

It sits beside the Tagus River in the neighborhood of Belem, which in Portuguese means Bethlehem. It was from here that Portugal’s maritime explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries, such as Vasco da Gama, set sail.

The cross and the crown went together on those journeys, though in March the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery — the theories backed by 15th-century “papal bulls” that legitimized Portugal and Spain’s colonial-era conquests and seizures of land.

BELEM CULTURAL CENTER

The Centro Cultural de Belem was built as the base for Portugal’s first ever presidency, in 1992, of what is now called the European Union.

The pink-and-white stone-trimmed building now houses the Atlantic port’s Contemporary Art Museum and concert halls.

Francis meets here Wednesday with Lisbon’s diplomatic corps, local officials and members of civil society.

JERONIMOS CHURCH AND MONASTERY

The pontiff will be at evening prayers at the Jeronimos Church and Monastery later Wednesday at what arguably is Portugal’s greatest monument. Its construction began in 1501 as King Manuel I’s biggest prestige project.

The site is now one of Lisbon’s signature buildings and one of the city's architectural gems.

Formerly a quaint fishing village, with narrow streets in its center, Cascais is now a flourishing tourist town with sought-after beaches and is one of Portugal’s wealthiest areas.

Francis travels to Cascais, which is about 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Lisbon, along the Atlantic coast, to the town on Thursday to visit a branch of Scholas Occurrentes, a youth foundation he launched.

PRACA DO IMPERIO

The broad, gardened Empire Square with its large fountain in Belem was built as part of the 1940 Exhibition of the Portuguese World, an event put on by dictator Antonio Salazar’s government to showcase the empire.

In May, the Vatican recalled a postage stamp promoting World Youth Day following complaints that it celebrated Portugal’s colonial rule and the dictatorship. It featured Francis leading a group of children up Lisbon’s Monument to the Discoveries across the road, which also started out as an exhibit.

The pope will hear confessions in the square on Friday.

SERAFINA NEIGHBORHOOD

The pope will visit Serafina's community center on Friday. It was a troubled district of the capital at the end of the last century, dogged by drug and crime problems.

But the community center run by Rev. Francisco Crespo has helped it put that past behind it. The neighborhood sits beneath Lisbon’s giant 18th-century aqueduct, an emphatic reminder of the bounty that gold from its Brazilian colony afforded Portugal.

PARQUE EDUARDO VII

Central Lisbon’s largest park, Parque Eduardo VII, rises to a ridge offering a view to the Tagus River over downtown Lisbon. It was named in 1903 for King Edward VII of Britain, who had visited Lisbon the previous year. The pontiff will be there for a reception on Thursday and presides over the Way of the Cross procession on Friday.

The shrine in the rural Portuguese town of Fatima, which is one of the Catholic Church’s most popular pilgrimage destinations, became famous after three local children reported seeing visions of the Virgin Mary above a tree there in 1917.

The sanctuary can hold hundreds of thousands of people.

Francis travels to the town about 120 kilometers (about 70 miles) north of Lisbon by helicopter on Saturday.

PARQUE DO TEJO

The Parque do Tejo is in one of Lisbon’s newest residential areas, which grew out of the 1998 Lisbon World Fair. That event swept aside Lisbon’s rusting eastern industrial area.

Francis will hold a vigil with thousands of young people at the park on Saturday evening and will celebrate Mass at the site on Sunday morning.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Copyright 2023 The  Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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As the pope heads to Portugal, he’s laying the groundwork for the church’s future and his own legacy

Excitement building up in Portugal ahead of Pope visit

FILE - Pope Francis waves to people from his popemobile along the Copacabana beachfront as he arrives for the Stations of the Cross procession in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, July 26, 2013. When Pope Francis made the first foreign trip of his papacy, to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day in 2013, he urged young people to make a “mess” in their local churches, to shake things up even if it ruffled the feathers of their bishops. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

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FILE - Faithful sing Christian songs before a vigil attended by people arriving early for the World Youth Day at a viewpoint overlooking Lisbon from across the Tagus River, in Almada, Portugal, as night falls, Friday, July 28, 2023. When Pope Francis made the first foreign trip of his papacy, to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day in 2013, he urged young people to make a “mess” in their local churches, to shake things up even if it ruffled the feathers of their bishops. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)

A giant stage is built for the international World Youth Day in the center of Lisbon, Monday, July 24, 2023. Pope Francis will attend the event that is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of young Catholic faithful to Lisbon. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

A banner on the outside of a church announces international World Youth Day from August 1 to 6, in Lisbon, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. Pope Francis will attend the event that is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of young Catholic faithful to Lisbon. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Volunteers from around the world greet each other during a mass celebrated for them in Estoril, outside Lisbon, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The volunteers will be working during the World Youth Day from Aug. 1 to Aug. 6, with the presence of Pope Francis, that is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of young Catholic faithful to Lisbon. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

A sightseeing tour bus drives past a giant stage being built for the international World Youth Day in the center of Lisbon, Monday, July 24, 2023. Pope Francis will attend the event that is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of young Catholic faithful to Lisbon. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Father Crespo, in the background, calls the numbers while World Youth Day volunteers play bingo with residents of a parish center in Lisbon, Thursday, July 27, 2023. When Pope Francis attends the international World Youth Day in Lisbon he will pay a visit to the parish center that cares for hundreds of residents of the impoverished neighborhood of Serafina. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

FILE- Faithful sing and dance to Christian songs before a vigil attended by people arriving early for the World Youth Day at a viewpoint overlooking Lisbon from across the Tagus River, in Almada, Portugal, as night falls, Friday, July 28, 2023. When Pope Francis made the first foreign trip of his papacy, to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day in 2013, he urged young people to make a “mess” in their local churches, to shake things up even if it ruffled the feathers of their bishops. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — When Pope Francis made the first foreign trip of his papacy , to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day in 2013, he urged young people to make a “mess” in their local churches, to shake things up even if it ruffled the feathers of their bishops.

As he embarks this week on another edition of World Youth Day, in Lisbon, Portugal, Francis in many ways has taken his own advice to heart. After 10 years as pope, Francis is accelerating his reform agenda and making revolutionary changes in personnel and policy that are definitely shaking things up.

Unencumbered by the shadow of Pope Benedict XVI, who died seven months ago , and despite recovering from a second intestinal surgery in as many years, the 86-year-old Francis is opening a frenetic second half of the year with his Portugal visit. He seems aware that he has a limited sweet spot of time to solidify the changes he believes are necessary for the 21st century church, and is looking to the next generation of faithful and leaders to execute them.

“The sense I get is that this is the consolidation phase of the pontificate,” said papal biographer Austen Ivereigh. “He’s laying the basis now, laying the ground, for the future.”

And no better place to put it on display than at a World Youth Day. The international rally, which St. John Paul II launched in 1986 to galvanize young Catholics in their faith, is expected to draw up to 1 million people for the first post-pandemic event of its kind. Francis’ perennial social justice concerns about climate change, social inequality and fraternity, as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine, are expected to be major themes.

Beyond Portugal, though, Francis’ multifold strategy for laying the groundwork for the future is coming together and will hit significant marks in the coming months.

His global canvassing of rank-and-file Catholics about their vision for the future comes to fruition this October with a big synod at the Vatican. The meeting is intended to give direction on such hot-button issues as the place of LGBTQ+ Catholics and women in the church, and for the first time will feature women and young people voting on proposals alongside bishops.

“I really think that for Pope Francis, he felt that ‘OK, now it’s mature’ and it would be good really to involve all the members, all the people in the synod as members” with the right to vote, said Sister Nathalie Becquart, who is one of the key synod organizers .

To then implement the vision that emerges from the synod, Francis has been naming a slew of unusually young bishops for key archdioceses — in his native Buenos Aires, Madrid and Brussels, among others. At the same time, he’s elevated several cardinals in their 50s — and in some cases their 40s — including the auxiliary bishop of Lisbon who is organizing World Youth Day.

Putting such young clerics in such important positions ensures a generation’s worth of likeminded leadership in the Vatican and archdioceses around the world. While not all are cookie-cutter proteges of Francis, many are seen as similarly pastorally minded and thus more game to implement his reforms, especially as the older generation of bishops and cardinals dies out.

After Francis is gone, the youngest of these new cardinals will have some three decades’ worth of local leadership and conclave votes to select future popes, suggesting a generational and ideological shift in the church leadership is very much underway.

Francis’ most important young “legacy” appointment was that of the Vatican’s new doctrinal czar, Argentine Cardinal-elect Victor Manuel Fernandez, 61. Francis’ theological ghostwriter ran into Vatican problems in the past over questions about his doctrinal orthodoxy, and his appointment sent shockwaves through the conservative and traditionalist wings of the church.

Fernandez sees his appointment as part of Francis’ longer-term agenda. “He is proposing a more inclusive church, more respectful of different ways of living, even of thinking,” Fernandez said in an interview.

Portuguese Cardinal-elect Americo Aguiar, who is in charge of World Youth Day, is another young churchman who also understands his appointment as part of a generational turning point for the Catholic hierarchy.

At age 49 he will become the second-youngest member of the College of Cardinals when he is installed Sept. 30. He is just six months older than the current youngest cardinal, whom Francis elevated this time last year: Cardinal Giorgio Marengo , head of the church in Mongolia where Francis will travel at the end of August.

“My reading of it is that this has to do with young people, it has to do with youth, it has to do with Portugal, it has to do with World Youth Day, it has to do with all of that,” Aguiar said in an interview. “I think that his objective and his underlining was exactly to send a signal to the young people, to every young person who is preparing the day, whether in Portugal or in the world, to feel identified with this decision.”

Francis said as much in his monthly prayer intentions for August, this time dedicated to the Lisbon event.

“In Lisbon, I would like to see a seed for the world’s future,” Francis said. “A world where love is at the center, where we can sense that we are sisters and brothers.”

His wish in many ways echoed his words at the 2013 World Youth Day in Rio, which now seem prescient in outlining many of the key pastoral messages Francis has emphasized over the past decade. Delivering a spontaneous, off-the-cuff exhortation to a gathering of Argentine pilgrims that was organized at the last minute, Francis urged the young to get out into the streets, spread their faith and “make a mess.”

“I want to see the church get closer to the people,” Francis said then, speaking in his native Spanish. “I want to get rid of clericalism, the mundane, this closing ourselves off within ourselves, in our parishes, schools or structures.”

Realizing the radical nature of his message, Francis apologized to the bishops for what was about to come, even though in the 10 years since, he has only gone further than anyone could have imagined at the time.

“The true reform of the church, you know, is not a revolution bringing something completely from outside,” said Becquart, the French nun, as she reflected on Francis’ agenda. “It’s a path of change that is a way to unfold tradition, but in a very dynamic way.”

AP reporters Helena Alvez in Lisbon, Portugal, and Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires contributed.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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Pope to visit Portugal in August for World Youth Day, Fatima Shrine

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More details announced for Pope’s Portugal visit

By TPN/Lusa, in Portugal · 27 Feb 2022, 12:07 · 0 Comments

Pope Francis has already expressed his intention to travel to Fátima during his stay in Portugal, but Duarte Ricciardi, executive secretary of the Local Organising Committee of the World Youth Day Lisbon 2023 (WYD Lisbon 2023) says he is officially unaware of any other papal initiative outside the World Youth Day.

“We do not have any information directly from the organisation, nor about other trips of the Pope during that time [when he is in Portugal], nor responsibility. In other words, our responsibility is on World Youth Day. We don't even know if the Pope, in fact, goes to Fátima, if he goes before the Jy, if he goes after, if he goes in the middle”.

Large numbers of people are expected to come out to see the Pope while he is in Portugal for WYD.

“This Pope is very universal and everyone will really want to see him and be able to be there. Events with the Pope are open. We have an organisation, obviously there is a flow of entries, but anyone who wants to see the Pope can come to the venue and see the Pope. This is what is planned, that all people who want to participate can participate”, says Duarte Ricciardi.

Initially scheduled for the summer of 2022, the initiative was postponed a year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first edition took place in 1986, in Rome, and since then WYD has passed through Buenos Aires (Argentina, 1987), Santiago de Compostela (Spain, 1989), Czestochowa (Poland, 1991), Denver (United States, 1993), Manila (Philippines, 1995), Paris (France, 1997), Rome (Italy, 2000), Toronto (Canada, 2002), Cologne (Germany, 2005), Sydney (Australia, 2008), Madrid (Spain, 2011), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, 2013), Krakow (Poland, 2016) and Panama City (Panama, 2019).

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Dates announced for Pope's visit to Portugal for WYD 2023

The Pope will be in Lisbon from August 2-6, after which he will return to Rome. The visit will include a brief trip to Fatima, which will take place on August 5.

Pope Francis visits young Confirmation students on May 20, 2023 ©CNS photo/Vatican Media

Today the Holy See officially announced that Pope Francis will visit Portugal this summer on the occasion of the WYDW and has announced the dates of his stay in the Portuguese country.

The Pope will be in Lisbon from August 2 to 6, after which he will return to Rome. The Pope has personally expressed his desire to visit the shrine of Fatima, so the official program includes a trip to the shrine on August 5.

This is Pope Francisco's second visit to Portugal, as in 2017 he also visited the shrine of Fatima to canonize the little shepherds Jacinta and Francisco Marto.

Visits of Popes to Portugal

The shrine has already been visited by Popes Paul VI, who made a pilgrimage in 1967; John Paul II, who traveled three times to Fatima: in 1982, to thank Our Lady for having survived the attack on St. Peter's Square in 1981, in 1991 and in 2000, to beatify the little shepherds Jacinta and Francisco; Francisco's predecessor, Benedict XVI, also traveled to Fatima in 2010, for the tenth anniversary of the beatification of Francisco and Jacinta.

However, this summer's visit will be the longest ever made by a pontiff to Portugal, since Paul VI's visit lasted twelve hours, and those of John Paul II and Benedict XVI never lasted more than three days.

WYD registration

The final WYD program is still under development, but registrations are open and can be done through the official website .

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