Young Hungarian Christians leave for World Youth Day in Lisbon

Views that “relativise everything” and cynicism are increasingly widespread in the world, Retvari said at the holy mass held at the Our Lady of Fatima Church in Budapest, adding, however, that participants at this year’s event “will experience something completely different in Lisbon”. He noted that 20 years ago he had also participated at the World Youth Day gathering.

The young Christians taking part in the event received the blessing of Canon Erno Fulop.

The origins of World Youth Day, a gathering of young Catholics from around the world with the Pope, date back to Palm Sunday of 1984, when St. Pope John Paul II invited young people to Rome to close out the extraordinary Holy Year of the Redemption. It is also a pilgrimage, a celebration of youth, an expression of the universal Church and an intense moment of evangelisation for the youth world.

World Youth Day this year runs from August 1 to 6.