World Youth Day is a worldwide encounter with the Pope which is typically celebrated every three years in a different country.
World Youth Day is open to all young people who want to take part in a festive encounter with their contemporaries centred on Jesus Christ. This event is an opportunity to experience in person the universality of the Church; to share with the whole world the hope of many young people who want to commit themselves to Christ and others. World Youth Day is a unique way to deepen your faith and grow closer to Christ, by means of prayer and the sacraments, together with thousands of other young people who share your interests and ambitions. During the week of World Youth Day, there will be youth festival programming in addition to the main events with the Pope.
Daily updates:
Day 1 of #CliftonWYD2023! Here’s a few photos of them starting strong and joining hundreds of young people in line to celebrate the Sacrament of Confession for their first experience of Reconciliation Park in Lisbon’s City of Joy. Instagram @cliftonevangelist and Facebook Clifton Diocese Youth Ministry if you’d like to follow, share, and most importantly pray for our pilgrims.
Day 2 of #CliftonWYD2023! Did someboday say #socialise? We’ve met other young Catholics from Mexico, Australia, and joined many more from around the globe in our first Rise Up session to hear from the Focolare Movement and Cardinal Sean O’Malley from the Archdiocese of Boston. It’s been a blessing! After all our socialising, we had the joy of hearing a talk from Christopher West, got to experience a Spanish-language WYD music festival, and closed out the day praying before a relic of St. Therese of Lisieux!
Day 3 of #CliftonWYD2023 is in full swing! Here’s some of our pilgrims looking fresh and friendly for the Rise Up session on Social Friendship.
Meet our World Youth Day 2023 Pilgrims!
We have many Pilgrims journeying to Lisbon in August 2023. We shall be following six of these during their formation before they go and also whilst they are experiencing WYD!
We will be providing updates and photographs of their journey together on Instagram @cliftonevangelist and Facebook Clifton Diocese Youth Ministry if you’d like to follow, share, and most importantly pray for our pilgrims.
Gabriela
I am Gabriela Franco, a Paraguayan Catholic. I have been blessed with a scholarship to study abroad. Having lived in Bristol for one year, I recently completed an MSc in Neuroscience and Education at the University of Bristol. The Lord has placed the desire to participate in World Youth Day in my heart. Sharing faith and God’s love with young people around the world is something I am passionate about. The Lord has called me to encounter him in a unique way to receive and spread the joy, grace, and gifts he wants to give us over those days. I said yes! to his love invitation.
Armie
I want to go to World Youth Day because I am not alone as I know within the Catholic Church, I have a massive Family in Jesus Christ. And having the chance to go and see people about my age praying, singing, marching, and talking about God is a true blessing. I know that to be in a place with such different characters, we will need each other to grow in our faith and to be one Body, Jesus Christ’s Body.
Susanna
Living in a rural area, I am one of very few young people in my parish. World Youth Day will be an opportunity for me to connect with other Catholic young people and hopefully make some lasting friendships within the Catholic community in the UK and perhaps internationally. I also hope that hearing the Pope’s message and participating in WYD can help me strengthen my faith, providing me with a stronger foundation to go through the next stages of my life. Family friends who have been in the past, have encouraged me to go, saying that it had been a life-changing experience for them.
Vicente
Hello everyone! My name is Vicente. I am from Chile, and I belong to a catholic Benedictine community called Manquehue. I have been living here in the UK for seven years and currently my work is at Downside school as part of the Chaplaincy team. I am excited to have the chance of going to Lisbon next year with the Clifton Diocese pilgrimage. I have worked a lot of years with young people ranging from school students to young adults, so apart from the excitement to participate I am also ready to offer my experience for the benefit of all pilgrims coming.
Joanna
Hi! My name is Joanna, I am a fourth-year Chemistry student at the University of Bristol. I am the Secretary of the Student Catholic Society, the place where I have come to know the Lord and found true friendship in the community. God has given me the opportunity to attend WYD 2023 this summer with Clifton Diocese. Every bone of my body is aching to go, to give thanks for His perfect presence throughout my university journey. I wish to meet Him, as a pilgrim, with an open spirit, amongst other young Catholics to praise His name at the top our voices.
Louis
People, flags and national colours from all over the world; Syria, Morocco, and I even remember seeing a massive flag from Iraq! I have very fond memories of World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid; I met people from countries that I didn’t even think had a Catholic population and I realised just how truly global the Catholic church is. It was a really uplifting and encouraging experience in the summer when I’d just finished my secondary school and left home and it was probably an easy time to drift away from my religion. Thankfully, the whole experience helped to solidify my faith and I’d love to return with a more mature, solid faith and experience the joys of the celebration of a truly global church.
Support our Pilgrims at WYD 2023!
If you would like to sponsor our Pilgrims at WYD, please do so by clicking the Dona button below::
