One and a half million faithful attended the vigil of the 37th World Youth Day in Lisbon on Saturday, presided over by Pope Francis. The number of attendees was provided by the Vatican, citing an estimate by the Portuguese authorities. Earlier, the pontiff made a lightning visit to the sanctuary of Fatima.
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A human tide of 1.5 million people flooded Lisbon on Saturday, August 5 for the World Youth Day (WYD) vigil presided over by Pope Francis.
The number of people present in a huge esplanade set up for the occasion on the banks of the Tagus was provided by the Vatican, citing an estimate by the Portuguese authorities.
Many pilgrims had been arriving throughout the afternoon under a scorching sun, with bags on their backs and sleeping bags, preparing to spend the night.
The pope made his appearance in the ‘Popemobile’ shortly after 1900 GMT for this giant festival-like prayer vigil. It began with pop-rock songs sung by hundreds of choristers and musicians at the colossal altar that dominates the site of this former dump.
Organizers had said they expected around a million people for tonight and the final Mass on Sunday morning, the culmination of a week of festive, cultural and spiritual events that make up the largest international Catholic gathering.
Between tents, flags of numerous countries and provisional sanitary facilities, the young pilgrims began to dance in a festive atmosphere, surrounded by security measures.
“We came on foot from Barcelona, we left 40 days ago… It’s a pilgrimage to see the apa,” Santi Salvador, a 19-year-old Spanish audiovisual communication student, told AFP after traveling 1,300 kilometers.
Another attendee, Tiago Carlos, a 30-year-old Portuguese, assured that he wanted to participate because it was a “great event” for what it represents “Catholics with people from different cultures.”
Quick visit to the Sanctuary of Fátima
By Saturday morning, 200,000 worshipers had already gathered at the Fátima sanctuary in central Portugal, where the pope made a two-hour whirlwind visit to pray the rosary with sick and disabled youth.
Contrary to expectations, Pope Francis improvised almost all of his first speech, without reading its text, and did not deliver the second. He did not mention the main topic that had been most speculated about for this stage: the war in Ukraine and the search for peace, which he had already spoken about on Wednesday.
The pope had already improvised his speech on Friday. The Vatican spokesman explained to AFP that the change was due to “vision problems” caused by a reflection in his glasses, but that Saturday had been “a choice” of the pontiff.
In Fatima, the spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics reaffirmed his message in favor of a Church open “to all, without exclusion.” “The Church has no doors, so everyone can enter,” he said.
Aboard his ‘Popemobile’, then seated in a wheelchair, Jorge Bergoglio enjoyed a long walk with the crowd on the esplanade surrounding the small chapel that marks the spot where, according to Catholic tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to three children in 1917.
The pope appeared smiling and blessed the faithful gathered along the barriers. Then he flew over the vast esplanade of the sanctuary in a helicopter, in a sky reddened and darkened by smoke and ash from a forest fire a hundred kilometers away.
He had already been there in 2017 to canonize two of the pastors on the occasion of the centenary of the “apparitions”.
Since the beginning of his visit, the longest by a pope to this Iberian country, he has already touched on various topics, including ecology, social networks, the war in Ukraine and pedophilia within the Church.
On Thursday and Friday, up to 800,000 worshipers flooded the streets of Lisbon before gathering in a park overlooking the city center for a rock-star welcome, according to authorities.
with AFP
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