P Pope Francis begins his journey to Portugal today for World Youth Day .
The departure from Rome Fiumicino airport at 7.50 this morning then the arrival in Lisbon just before 10 local time, 11 in Italy.
"I will return rejuvenated", the Pope joked to the journalists who accompanied him on the flight.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa welcomed the Pontiff at the airport. After the welcoming ceremony, the official meeting with the president at the Palacio Nacional de Belem. Then, at 12.15, the meeting at the Centro Cultural de Belem with about a thousand people including political and religious authorities, the diplomatic corps, entrepreneurs and representatives of civil society. This is the Pope's first speech.
The organizers estimate the presence of one million young people . At the center of the appointments is faith , with all the doubts and hopes of the new generations, even after the Covid tsunami. A veritable " Vocations Fair " was then set up in Lisbon in which young people will have the opportunity to enter more than 150 "houses" of different movements, associations, communities, religious orders and social projects, "so that they can get to know the variety of charisms that make up the marvelous garden of the Church», as the organizers say.
It will also be a WYD under the banner of climate , technology , with the use of the metaverse in the meetings, but the hottest topic remains that of peace . Among the thousands of young people there are also five hundred Ukrainians and a few dozen young Catholics from Russia. It is not excluded that the Pope may meet these two delegations.
For Francis, among the other notes of the day was the meeting of the Assembly of the Republic Augusto Ernesto dos Santos Silva (at 4.30 pm local time) followed by Prime Minister António Costa. Then at 17.30 (18.30 in Italy) Pope Francis will go to the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Belém, commonly called Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, where he will meet the bishops, priests, men and women religious, for the celebration of Vespers, the last appointment of the day.
(Unioneonline/vl)