Officials say 1.5 million young Catholics turned out to see the pontiff as he held a Saturday vigil. In Portugal since Wednesday, the head of the Catholic Church will end World Youth Day with an open-air mass Sunday.
Worshippers at Saturday’s World Youth Day event, dubbed “Catholic Woodstock,” were sprayed with water to keep them cool as the sun blazed on them.
At the park, the aging pontiff went off script to deliver impassioned remarks to worshippers, much as he had done earlier in the day when praying with some 200,000 faithful at the shrine of Fatima, where the Vatican says the Virgin Mary appeared to three young children in 1917.
Concern has been voiced, among other things, about Pope Francis’ eyesight, though a Vatican spokesman said that this had nothing to do with him opting to shun prepared remarks at Fatima.
Pope Francis later posted remarks on the social media site X — formerly Twitter — saying that he had prayed for the “Church and the world, especially for countries at war” while at the shrine.
Created by Pope John Paul II in 1986, World Youth Day is the Catholic Church’s largest gathering and staged in a different city around the globe every three years.
Pope Francis has previously attended iterations in Rio de Janeiro, Krakow and Panama.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Worshippers at Saturday’s World Youth Day event, dubbed “Catholic Woodstock,” were sprayed with water to keep them cool as the sun blazed on them.
At the park, the aging pontiff went off script to deliver impassioned remarks to worshippers, much as he had done earlier in the day when praying with some 200,000 faithful at the shrine of Fatima, where the Vatican says the Virgin Mary appeared to three young children in 1917.
Concern has been voiced, among other things, about Pope Francis’ eyesight, though a Vatican spokesman said that this had nothing to do with him opting to shun prepared remarks at Fatima.
Pope Francis later posted remarks on the social media site X — formerly Twitter — saying that he had prayed for the “Church and the world, especially for countries at war” while at the shrine.
Created by Pope John Paul II in 1986, World Youth Day is the Catholic Church’s largest gathering and staged in a different city around the globe every three years.
Pope Francis has previously attended iterations in Rio de Janeiro, Krakow and Panama.
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