Pope Francis will hear some young people in confession at World Youth Day this morning and during the afternoon he will participate as a pilgrim in the Way of the Cross, on a day also marked by a protest against this world meeting.
During the morning of the third day of his visit to Portugal, Francis will confess some young people in the ‘City of Joy’ in Belém, where 150 confessionals are set up for pilgrims.
The passage through Bethlehem will be brief and at 09:45 the head of the Catholic Church will meet with representatives of some socio-charitable assistance centers at the Serafina Parish Center, a visit much anticipated by Canon Francisco Crespo, responsible for the social center, who said it was “an extraordinary Grace” that he never imagined possible.
With several valences, supporting from children to the elderly, the Centro Social Paroquial São Vicente de Paulo, in Bairro da Liberdade, was gradually built by the hands of Canon Francisco Crespo to respond to the needs of the neighborhoods of Liberdade and Serafina, in the parish of Campolide.
The last work of the Centro Social Paroquial São Vicente de Paulo was the church, inaugurated in 2000, and which is expected to be the place where Pope Francis will give his speech during his visit to the institution.
After the visit, Francis has scheduled a lunch with young people at the Apostolic Nunciature (the Vatican embassy in Lisbon), where he is staying.
In the late afternoon, he returned to the Eduardo VII Park, renamed these days ‘Hill of Encounter’, after having had, on Thursday, the first official meeting with the pilgrims participating in the Day, at the welcoming ceremony.
Today, the Pope will accompany as a pilgrim the Way of the Cross, which will have as its underlying theme the “vulnerability and fragility” with which everyone is confronted on a daily basis.
According to Father João Goulão, director of the Padre António Vieira University Center, in the 14 stations of the Way of the Cross, which will take place over about 90 minutes, the Pope will be on stage, following the course of the celebration like the rest of the pilgrims.
The themes that will be reflected on are “the fragility and wounds that everyone is experiencing (…), the fragility of the Church, the fragility of society”, based on a “great worldwide consultation, through the Dicastery for the Laity and the Family”.
The day will also be marked by a demonstration in Lisbon’s Martim Moniz Square against WYD and the Catholic Church, organized by the citizens’ movement “Sem Papas a Língua”, which challenges the “high public spending by the state and municipalities on this religious event”.
