Millions to visit Poland for World Youth Days
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
29.12.2015 15:37
Between 2.5 and three million people are expected to take part in the World Youth Days with Pope Francis in Kraków, southern Poland, at the end of July 2016.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Father Grzegorz Suchodolski, the director of the Polish organising committee, has told the Polish Press Agency that the main goal of event is to create for young people “a space for dialogue and the strengthening of their faith”.
This is particularly important for those arriving from the countries where Christians are a persecuted minority.
The main venues of the religious celebrations will be the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in the Kraków district of Łagiewniki, the Błonie Common in Kraków and the Campus Misericordiae in the nearby Wieliczka, where young people from around the world will attend a night vigil and mass with Pope Francis on 30-31 July.
Launched by Pope John Paul II in the 1980s, the World Youth Days have been held every two or three years. Poland hosted the event once, in 1991, in the Black Madonna shrine of Częstochowa. (mk/rg)