WYD Registration Just Opened–and 45,000 Already Signed Up

On July 26, Pope Francis opened the registration for World Youth Day 2016. With a touch to his iPad, the pontiff was the first to register for next year’s event. “Today,” he said,

“…we open registration for the thirty-first World Youth Day, to be held next year in Poland. I invite the youth of the world to live this pilgrimage that will be going to Krakow.”

L’Osservatore Romano reports that within the first 24 hours, more than 45,000 young people have joined the pope, signing up to come to Krakow for the 31st WYD. Already there are 250 “macrogroups” and 300 volunteers signed up for the event, which will take place July 26-31, 2016.

The World Youth Day event is part of the extraordinary holy year which will begin December 8. The theme for WYD is “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” The theme will complete a three-part series of WYD themes focused on the Beatitudes. WYD events at the diocesan level will have as their theme “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

According to L’Osservatore Romano,

Twenty five years after its start, WYD will return to Poland, the land of the Pontiff who created it. Even if Pope Wojtyła loved to say that “it was the young people themselves who invented WYD”. In 1991 in Częstochowa, a strong wind of faith was announced to the young people and from them the faith blew beyond the iron curtain. The young Christians of eastern and western Europe experienced the first large-scale encounter after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Pope Wojtyła returned to his homeland for WYD which saw the participation of more than one million people.

Information about WYD 2016 is available in the English language here. You can learn about the Days in the Dioceses, register, or sign up as a volunteer at the official WYD website.