In preparation for WYD 2023, young people go on pilgrimage with Mary

On November 19 and 20, 2022, on the feast of Christ the King, millions of young people worldwide gathered for the diocesan World Youth Day (WYD), a foretaste of WYD in Lisbon, Portugal, which will take place over August 1-6, 2023. The goal was to prepare for the international encounter, the theme of which will be "Mary got up and left with haste", and to mobilize the greatest number possible of young people for the event.

In France, many meetings were organized in the dioceses, and thousands of young people gathered for either a weekend, a whole day, or a prayer vigil.

In Senegal, this event, which resumed after a three-year break due to Covid-19, was an opportunity for Senegalese Church leaders to revisit with the youth the model of Mary, Mother of Jesus, and to offer her as a model of faith and hope. A large number of young Senegalese Catholics listened attentively to the homily given by the Archbishop of Dakar.

Through the example of Mary and the Visitation, Archbishop Benjamin Ndiaye invited both the young and adult faithful to persevere in praise and thanksgiving: "The Visitation is the focal point of our year 2022-2023. Our Lady of the Visitation invites herself to our home as she did with Elizabeth. And she does not come alone: she brings us the Savior conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit. Full of joy and gratitude, we cry out our surprise with her cousin Elizabeth," explained Bishop Ndiaye, who noted that the WYD coincides with the diocesan Marian year.

To celebrate this diocesan year dedicated to the Mother of the Savior, the archbishop announced the arrival of "Pilgrim Virgins in parishes, religious and priestly communities to show the hospitality and filial gratitude of the Catholic community to the Mother of the Savior. (...) Our Pilgrim Virgins are signs to support our faith and religious practice."

Adapted and translated from:

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