2023-08-01 15:15:00
August 1, 2023 / 8:15am
Cardinal Pietro Parolin explained that the leg of the papal trip in Fatima, Portugal, was desired by Pope Francis to be close to the sick and suffering and to pray for world peace.
On the occasion of the next World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, which takes place from August 1 to 6, the Vatican Secretary of State held a conversation with the media on the expectations and the preparation of the 42nd international trip of the Pontiff.
“It is an important visit in which the Holy Father will meet sick young people and will pray the Holy Rosary with them. It will be an intense moment. I believe that the Pope wants to reiterate the message of the Virgin to the three little shepherds when she appeared in the distant 1917, “said Cardinal Pietro Parolin in the interview that was published this Tuesday August 1st.
According to the Cardinal, the message of Fatima continues to be important. “They were words of comfort, they were words of hope in a world at war, not very different from the reality we are experiencing today. And the Virgin invited the little shepherds and, through them, the men, to pray and recite, in particular, the Holy Rosary with great confidence to obtain peace in the world.
That is why Pope Francis insists on this visit to the Sanctuary of Fatima during WYD, because “he always carries in his heart the drama of those involved in conflicts” and “he asks us not to lose heart and to persevere in prayer and in specific prayer of the Holy Rosary”, emphasized Cardinal Parolin.
During his stay in Fatima, where the Pope will arrive by helicopter on saturday august 5thit is expected that he will tour the enclosure in the ‘popemobile’ to the Chapel of the Apparitions, where he will pray the Rosary and address a few words to the pilgrims before returning to Lisbon.
Pope Francis had already visited the Marian sanctuary on May 12 and 13, 2017, on the occasion of the centenary of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Cova de Iria.
The young people who have already arrived in Lisbon are waiting for the Holy Father, who has invited them “to prepare this event above all with prayer.”
The Bishop of Rome leaves for WYD with the certainty that the meetings there “have great power in themselves, even the power to change someone’s life,” said the Vatican Secretary of State.
Cardinal Parolin shares the thoughts of the Pontiff, who will meet, listen and speak with young people from all over the world for this great festival of faith. The Pope already has his “backpack” ready, the same one that the young pilgrims will receive later in Lisbon.
The World Youth Days have their origins 40 years ago, especially thanks to a “prophetic intuition” of Saint John Paul II, said the cardinal. “The Church wants to accompany young people to announce the Gospel to them, to facilitate their encounter with Christ.”
Therefore, this “prophetic intuition” retains all its relevance in a constantly changing world, affected by the pandemic and conflicts; WYD is presented as an important instrument for young people to encounter Jesus Christ, Parolin stressed.
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The Cardinal explained that the Church faces the challenge of transmitting the faith to today’s world, where many are unaware of Jesus Christ or have lost their faith.
“The Pope has often spoken of this break in the transmission of the faith between generations.” He also recalls: “There are more and more parents who do not baptize their children, who do not teach them to pray or who go to other faith communities.”
Young people have questions and doubts, at the same time that they ask the Church to “renew its apostolic impetus and, without fear, embark on that path of pastoral and missionary conversion, so desired by the Holy Father,” said Cardinal Parolin.
Pope Francis reiterated today his request for prayers for WYD and the pilgrims, through his Twitter account: “I ask you to accompany me with prayer on my trip to Portugal on the occasion of World Youth Day. To the Virgin Mary, luminous star of the Christian path, so venerated in Portugal, I commend the pilgrims of the #WYD and all the young people of the world”.
On the afternoon of Monday, July 31, the Pontiff also prayed before the image of the Salvation of the Roman People of the Roman Basilica of Santa María la Mayor to entrust to the Virgin Mary his next apostolic trip to Lisbon.
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