About 200,000 faithful, of the more than 1 million expected for World Youth Day (WYD) 2023, have already arrived in Lisbon, a city flooded with religious symbols and paralyzed by mobility restrictions and security controls imposed on the eve of the arrival of the Pope Francis.
Tens of thousands of young people from all over the world took to the streets to reach Colina do Encontro, in the emblematic Eduardo VII Park, crowned by a giant altar, which served as the setting for the opening ceremony of WYD, officiated by Manuel Clemente, cardinal patriarch from Lisbon.
Singing religious songs, carrying flags and in a festive atmosphere, the young people crowded the park, from where you can see the historic center of the city, which seems practically deserted due to the limitations imposed by security issues.
The circulation of cars is prohibited in the center of Lisbon and the metro stations close to the region are closed.
Thousands of police officers participate in a strong security device that covers the Portuguese capital and its metropolitan region. Controls are multiplied to reach Colina do Encontro, although the screens installed in the surroundings allow hundreds of thousands of people to follow the ceremonies.
The organizers expect 1 million faithful and already account for around 200 thousand in the Portuguese capital, coming from all over the world.
Faithful like the Spanish Marta Seguí, member of a group of 150 people from the Balearic Islands, who is staying in the metropolitan area and recognizes that you need to “have patience” to move around the city.
“There are a lot of people. It’s a real madness on all the trains and buses, but it’s true that in the end we all came for one thing, which is to all find each other”, Marta told EFE Agency.
Éric Hernández, from Guatemala and who is part of a group of 400 pilgrims, also admitted that it is “a little difficult” to move around the city, mainly because of the language, but he stressed that “in each country the logistics are different” and his wish is to take “good memories of Lisbon”.
Magdalena Sedor, on the other hand, is Polish and declared that her objective this Tuesday was to discover the city in the hours before the start of WYD, so she would take the opportunity to walk around the historic center; which she would have to do on foot, since traffic is stopped.
Spaniards lead participation in WYD
The Spaniards (77,224 out of a total of 345,000 subscribers) lead participation in the WYD, ahead of the Italians (59,469), Portuguese (43,742) and French (42,482), according to the organization, which boasts that in Lisbon “everyone is represented”. countries except Maldives”.
More than 25,000 volunteers, mostly from Portugal and Spain, help the organizers, who delivered 5,000 press credentials.
Furthermore, WYD will have 688 bishops, of which 30 are cardinals, mostly from Italy (109) and Spain (70).
World Youth Day ends on the 6th and from Wednesday (2nd) will be attended by Pope Francis, who will lead the celebrations in Lisbon and surroundings, with a brief visit to Fátima on the 5th.
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