KIEV, 07/19/2023 (KAP) The future cardinal and main organizer of World Youth Day in Portugal is currently visiting Catholic youth in Ukraine. Lisbon’s auxiliary bishop Americo Alves Aguiar came “to pray for peace and for all those who are defending their country,” the information portal “Vatican News” reported on Tuesday. The exact program was not announced for security reasons. Stations are, for example, Butscha, which has become notorious due to the massacres there, Lemberg and the places of pilgrimage Berdychiv and Sarwanyzja. He will be accompanied by the Vatican Ambassador to Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas.
Lisbon awaits with open arms all those who can come to WYD, said the Auxiliary Bishop. Those who cannot go with him, including those who are in heaven, he takes with him in his heart, says Aguiar. During his trip to Ukraine, Auxiliary Bishop Aguiar was also in Lemberg, where he prayed at the graves of soldiers who died in the war.
World Youth Day takes place in Portugal’s capital from August 1st to 6th. Pope Francis will also travel to Lisbon. According to Vatican News, only about 500 young people from Ukraine can travel to the major Catholic event due to the war. The organizers are expecting around a million visitors in Lisbon, including almost 3,000 from Austria.
Asked whether a “gesture of reconciliation” between Ukrainian and Russian youth is planned during World Youth Day, the Portuguese auxiliary bishop said, according to the Italian Catholic press service SIR, “we know that it takes time. It may seem easy in the media, to bring everyone together in a feast of forgiveness and mercy. But it takes time. And we must ask the Holy Spirit how, where and when the right time and circumstances will be.”
2023-07-19 09:13:39
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