"Holy Father

It is with great gratitude and joy that we welcome you in these days so filled with the youth of the Church and the world.

Filled by the crowd of young people coming to Lisbon and the land of Portugal. Land that has long been linked to the Apostolic See, which has its current face in Your Holiness, so evangelically expressive and convincing for Christians and humanity in general.

These days will also be filled with a program full of meetings and celebrations, which you will preside over, and you already are presiding over, with the constant youthful spirit that time does not take away from you, but rather highlights and reinforces.

Thank you so much, Holy Father, because since we proposed to you to hold the World Youth Day here, you have always welcomed and responded to our invitation with the best willingness and great encouragement.

We really need to be rejuvenated with Your presence and Your word in these days, so that the beauty of the Gospel may shine even more, here and beyond, in these times when there is no lack of obstacles to the integral and peaceful development of peoples and among peoples. Peoples of whom the young people gathered here are the eloquent and promising face and expression, even those who arrived from countries where there is no lack of difficulties.

There is no lack of obstacles, but there is also no lack of willingness to remove and overcome them, with the enthusiasm and commitment of someone who wants to build a future that matches human aspirations and God's desires.

Since the beginning of Your pontificate, Holy Father, you have confirmed that this can happen, always being present where there is more life to guarantee and a future to build. Therefore, young people feel you as their natural ally and surround you with great esteem and affection.

It will be the same in these days with us. And I am certain – with all my brothers of the Episcopate and of the Church that is in Lisbon and Portugal – that the World Youth Day that we will live together in these days, will correspond to your constant appeal for a more solidary and fraternal world, as the evangelical truth demands and humanity most longs for.

Thank you very much, Holy Father. Welcome to our common home!

Also welcome, all of you, pilgrims of this Day! You have come here with an equal desire to meet, share, and celebrate what moves you most on the path to a more solidary and fraternal future, in each people and among all peoples. And these days, as you can be sure, will already be the beginning of that future that you are building.

This Day has as its theme the evangelical passage referring to the young Mary of Nazareth, who, as soon as she conceived Jesus, immediately took Him hastily to meet Elizabeth, her relative. She carried Him in her womb, as you, dear pilgrims, will carry in your hearts the Gospel of peace, from all to all. Our Lady of the Visitation accompanies you these days, so that your life may be now and later a permanent visitation to those who await the good you will bring.

This Day is a high point of your pilgrimage. Your life should be fulfilled in its entirety!"

D. Manuel Clemente - Cardinal-Patriarch of Lisbon