What is World Youth Day?

From the beginning of his priesthood, Karol Wojtyla had a strong rapport with young people and a talent for performing youth ministry.  This continued throughout his tenure as bishop and into his Papacy.  Thus, the concept of the World Youth Day was a natural result of his life-long ministry and service to young people.

On Palm Sunday 1984, Pope Saint John Paul II held an international youth meeting on the theme of the Redemption of the Cross.  To the youth, he entrusted the Holy Year Cross  and invited them to return the following year.   The next year they did, with over 250,000 pilgrims joining the Pope in the Vatican.   Inspired by the success of the first WYD, the Pope decided to continue this extraordinary event.   Later that year, the Pope instituted the World Youth Day as a Church celebration with the year 1986’s event serving as the first WYD.  “No one invented the World Youth Days,” the Pope explained in Crossing the Threshold of Hope.  “It was the young people themselves who created them [emphasis in original.]”  He continued:   “Those days, those encounters, became something desired by young people throughout the world” (124). 

Subsequent WYD celebrations have occurred with international celebrations every two to four years with diocesan level celebrations held on the in-between years.   Thus the first official WYD was held in 1986 locally; the first international gathering of youth for WYD occurred in 1987 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Other WYD venues included Santiago de Compestella, Spain (1989); Czestochowa, Poland (1991); Denver, Colorado (1993); Manila, the Philippines (1995); Paris (1997); Rome (2000), and Toronto, Canada (2002).   The Holy Year Cross has been present at all the major youth gatherings and at every WYD.

In Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope Saint John Paul II wrote of the importance of WYD.  “The World Youth Days have become a great and fascinating witness that young people give of themselves,” he wrote.  “They have become a powerful means of evangelization.  In the young there is, in fact, an immense potential for good and for creative possibility.  [emphasis in original] (124).”  

Toronto 2002 was the last World Youth Day that Pope St. John Paul II attended.  He died in 2005.  His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, continued the WYD tradition, and attended WYD 2005 in Cologne, Germany.  The next WYDs with Pope Benedict XVI were held in Sydney, Australia in 2008, and Madrid, Spain in 2011.  “Here too, in this great assembly of young Christians from all over the world, we have had a vivid experience of the Spirit’s presence and power in the life of the Church,” Pope Benedict XVI in his Homily for the WYD Mass on 20 July 2008.   “We have seen the Church for what she truly is: the Body of Christ, a living community of love, embracing people of every race, nation and tongue, of every time and place, in the unity born of our faith in the Risen Lord.”

Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013.  His successor, Pope Francis I, also continued with the World Youth Days.  Pope Francis’s first WYD as Pope was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil later that same year.   “Go. During these days here in Rio, you have been able to enjoy the wonderful experience of meeting Jesus, meeting him together with others, and you have sensed the joy of faith,” he said to those in attendance in his Homily for the Mass for WYD on 28 July 2013.  “But the experience of this encounter must not remain locked up in your life or in the small group of your parish, your movement, or your community. That would be like withholding oxygen from a flame that was burning strongly. Faith is a flame that grows stronger the more it is shared and passed on, so that everyone may know, love and confess Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and history (cf. Rom 10:9).”

The next World Youth Days were held Krakow, Poland in 2016,  Panama City, Panama in 2019, and Lisbon, Portugal in 2023.  

Pope Francis I died in April 2025.  His successor is Pope Leo XIV, the first American elected as Pope.  The 2027 WYD is scheduled for Seoul, South Korea.  This will be the first WYD to be held on the Asian continent.  

As part of pilgrimage groups from the Diocese of Camden, NJ, I attended World Youth Days in Paris in 1997 and in Rome in 2000.  In addition to participating in WYD events in both locations, the Camden Diocese pilgrimage organizers also scheduled visits to holy sites.  During the WYD 1997 pilgrimage,  our group also visited sites in Lourdes associated with Our Blessed Mother’s appearances to Saint Bernadette and visited sites associated with Saint Therese of the Child Jesus in Lisieux.  During the WYD 2000 pilgrimage, our group also visited the Vatican, Assisi, Siena, and the shrine of Saint Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo.  

World Youth Days are not sightseeing trips.  They are a pilgrimage to experience our Catholic faith with young Catholics from across the world.  They are an opportunity to experience the richness of our faith as expressed by other cultures and peoples.  They are an opportunity to unite in Christ across language, economic, and cultural divides.  We are one in Christ no matter where we come from or what language we speak.  WYDs culminate with a Papal Mass attended by hundreds of thousands of worshippers.  Over 2 million people attended the 2000 WYD Mass held at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.  

I encourage all Catholic young people to participate in a World Youth Day if they are able and I encourage all Catholics to support WYD pilgrims in whatever way we can.  For those who attend, WYD will be an experience of a lifetime and a foretaste of an eternity with the Thrice Holy God.