World Youth Day

World Youth Day, program of religious education and spiritual formation for youth in the Roman Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II was inspired to establish World Youth Day in December 1985 by the church’s Youth Jubilee (1984), a special meeting between the pope and young Catholics held at the conclusion of the 1983–84 Year of Jubilee, and by the United Nations International Youth Year (1985). The first official World Youth Day, held on Palm Sunday in Rome in 1986, had the goal of assuring young Catholics of their capacity to perpetuate the church’s traditions, spirituality, and work within the world.

World Youth Day is celebrated every few years as an international event that draws young people from around the world and has been likened to a “Catholic Woodstock.” Estimated attendance has ranged from 500,000 to 5 million. World Youth Day is also celebrated annually or semi-annually in local dioceses.

International celebration

The international World Youth Day takes the form of a pilgrimage to a major world city, where there is a weeklong program of spiritual activity that integrates catechism, public rituals—including a reenactment of the Stations of the Cross—and performing arts. The program is inaugurated by the completion of the “Journey of the Cross and Icon,” in which young pilgrims transport from Rome to the celebration site a wooden cross and an image of the Virgin Mary known as the Salus Populi Romani (Latin: “Health of the Roman People”), both donated by John Paul II “to the youth of the world.” The celebration culminates in a Sunday mass led by the pope. Since 1989 the international celebration has most often taken place in July or August.

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Diocesan celebration

From 1987 to 2020 the diocesan celebration of World Youth Day was held on Palm Sunday. In November 2020 Pope Francis announced that he was moving its celebration to the Feast of Christ the King, which falls in November on the last Sunday of Ordinary Time (immediately preceding Advent).

List of cities that have hosted World Youth Day

International World Youth Days have been held in the following cities since 1986.

• Rome, Italy (1986)
• Buenos Aires, Argentina (1987)
• Santiago de Compostela, Spain (1989)
• Częstochowa, Poland (1991)
• Denver, Colorado, U.S. (1993)
• Manila, Philippines (1995)
• Paris, France (1997)
• Rome (2000)
• Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2002)
• Cologne, Germany (2005)
• Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (2008)
• Madrid, Spain (2011)
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2013)
• Kraków, Poland (2016)
• Panama City, Panama (2019)
• Lisbon, Portugal (2023)
• Rome (2025)
• Seoul, South Korea (scheduled for 2027)