Dates for World Youth Day 2019 announced

PANAMA CITY – The next international World Youth Day celebration, on the theme ‘“I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38),’ will be held in Panama from January 22 – 27, 2019.

Archbishop José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta announced the dates on Friday, 20 Jan 2017.

According to the official World Youth Day website, this WYD is expected to be much smaller than previous WYDs. The Central American nation is expecting to host about 500,000 pilgrims, significantly fewer than the 2.4 million and 3.7 million pilgrims estimated to have attended WYD Krakow 2016 and Rio 2013, respectively.

The reason for the event being hosted during the winter, the site explained, was to avoid the country’s rainy season, which occurs in July and August, which are the months in which WYD is often hosted.

The Apostolic Nuncio in Panama, Archbishop Andrés Carrascosa Coso, in an interview with La Estrella Panamá, stressed that the nation is capable of organising this global event. – zenit.org