Pope to WYD pilgrims: see you soon! Close to 1 million ‘likes’ for WYD!
Vatican City, 20 July 2013: Pope Francis on Saturday tweeted his best wishes to World
Youth Day pilgrims, many of whom are en route or already arrived in the host city,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ‘Dear young friends, I know that many of you are still travelling
to Rio. May the Lord accompany you on your way’ he wrote via his @pontifex handle
on the micro-blogging platform. A day before, on Friday Pope Francis tweeted, “Many
of you have already arrived in Rio and many more are just arriving,” He added, “We
will see one another there in only three days.” More than three hundred thousand people
are registered for the event, with organizers preparing for as many as two and a half
million visitors.
Fr. Michel Rogers, SJ, coordinator of English-language WYD
initiatives for the Society of Jesus in the US, told Vatican Radio that host city
Rio de Janeiro is already beginning to feel the effects of the pilgrim swell. “The
city is already beginning to fill up, and you can see the green WYD pilgrim packs
everywhere,” he said, adding, “I think it is going to be a wonderful four days at
the centre and two days out in the field.” Fr. Rogers, SJ is also a member of
the lead committee for the international English-language welcome centre in Brazil,
which will be the hub of English-language catechesis and prayer during the first four
days of WYD events, starting Tuesday, July 22nd.
Meanwhile, Nearly one
million people have “liked” World Youth Day Rio’s Facebook page in the run-up to the
July 23-28 events in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As of Friday, more than 969,000 people
had clicked the “like” icon for WYD. You can find that and all sorts of useful information
on the official WYD 2013 site: www.rio2013.com.
In his first apostolic journey
abroad, in Brazil Pope Francis will lead many of the WYD events including liturgies,
the Via Crucis and a prayer vigil with young people. The Pope leaves Rome on Monday,
July 22 and returns to Rome Monday the 29th. While there, he will also visit a drug
rehabilitation center and a favela shanty town and meet with a number of prisoners.
He is also expected to announce the location of the next World Youth Day. Source:
VR Eng