(Vatican Radio) It’s official: the next venue for World Youth Day celebrations will
be Krakòw, Poland. Pope Francis made the announcement in Rio de Janeiro Sunday, the
final day of his week-long pastoral visit to Brazil for WYD 2013.
Tracey
McClure reports:
Speaking ahead
of reciting the Angelus prayer with the faithful gathered in Rio, Pope Francis invoked
the intercession of the Virgin Mary in preparation for Krakòw, asking “for the light
of the Holy Spirit upon the journey that will lead us to this next stage in our joyful
celebration of faith and the love of Christ.”
The decision to hold World Youth
Day in Poland’s second largest city will come as no surprise to many. Blessed Pope
John Paul II, a Pole who led the Archdiocese of Krakòw for some 15 years and the Universal
Church for nearly 27, is soon to be canonized, becoming one of the country’s newest
saints.
Not long before departing for WYD in Brazil, on July 4, 2013, Pope
Francis confirmed his approval of Karol Wojtyla’s canonization, in a process initiated
in 2005 under the pontificate of Benedict XVI.
The Polish pontiff will be
canonized together with Pope John XXIII in a special mass expected to take place
before the end of 2013.
Hundreds of thousands of Poles came to Rome to mourn
their beloved pope in April 2005 after John Paul II’s death. They credit him with
the downfall of the former communist regime and the resurgence of Poland’s Catholic
identity.
A university city, Kraków is a major national academic and artistic
centre whose old town was one of UNESCO’s first World Heritage sites. Situated on
the banks of the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to
the 7th century. Krakòw has a population of approximately 760,000 but some 8 million
people live within a 100 km radius of the centre.