Pope Francis at WMOF 2018 held in Dublin, Ireland
Pic: MAXWELLS 
World Youth Day and the World Meeting of Families have been postponed for one year at the request of Pope Francis, according to the Vatican.
World Youth Day, which was scheduled to be hosted in Lisbon, Portugal in August 2022 will now take place in August 2023.
The World Meeting of Families, which was previously scheduled to be held in Rome, Italy in June 2021, will now take place in June 2022.
“Because of the current health situation and its consequences on the movement and gatherings of young people and families,” said Holy See press office director Matteo Bruni.
“The World Meeting of Families in Rome will be pushed back until June 2022 and World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, will be pushed back until August 2023.”
The Pope made the decision together with the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, which is responsible for organising the events.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the dicastery, said two large gatherings would not be held during the same summer, which was one reason World Youth Day was pushed back.
Lockdowns
The other reason, according to Cardinal Farrell, is that although people are talking about ‘returning to normal’ and government leaders are making plans for phasing out lockdowns and reopening businesses, the dicastery does “not believe travel will be that extensive” anytime soon.
World Youth Day, which is typically held every three years, last took place in Panama in January 2019, drawing an estimated 700,000 young Catholics.
The youth gathering was started by St Pope John Paul II in 1985. At some past World Youth Days, attendance has reached into the millions.
The theme of World Youth Day in Lisbon in 2023 is “Mary arose and went with haste”.
The bishops’ local organising committee for World Youth Day in Portugal put out a statement on April 20 saying it welcomed the Pope’s decision to postpone the event.
The committee said it shared “with the Holy Father the call that, in the current context and in the coming time, the focus of everyone’s attention is on caring for the most vulnerable, families, and all who, for very different reasons, suffer from the effects of the pandemic caused by COVID-19”.
In 1994, St Pope John Paul II established the World Meeting of Families, which also takes place every three years in a different country. The most recent meeting was held in Dublin, Ireland in 2018.
The event, now moved to June 2022, has the theme: ‘Family Love: a vocation and a path to holiness’.
