World Youth Day (WYD) Lisbon 2023 featured some novelties that, until now, had never been part of any previous edition of the largest gathering of young people from around the world with the Pope.

Amongst the programme that has become typical of past meetings, WYD Lisbon 2023 presented some new things:

Missionary gesture

"We don't realise that isolating the elderly and leaving them in the care of others without adequate and loving family accompaniment mutilates and impoverishes the family itself. In addition, it ends up depriving young people of that necessary contact with their roots and with a wisdom that youth alone cannot attain," Pope Francis tells us in his Encyclical Fratelli Tutti.

With this in mind, WYD Lisbon 2023 set all the Team Leaders and Volunteers the challenge of bringing World Youth Day to those who couldn't be there. In communion with the Pope, the Missionary Gesture was a visit by all the Volunteers, made missionaries of WYD Lisbon 2023, to the most vulnerable.

Through this Gesture, the Volunteers visited more than 600 institutions of all kinds - such as homes for the elderly, drug addiction centres, hospitals, prisons and centres for people with disabilities - which, in total, represented more than 48,000 people.

Rise Up Encounters

In order to give young people an experience in line with the synodal journey lived in the Universal Church, a new model of World Youth Day catechesis was proposed. The Rise Up Encounters challenged young people to reflect on the major themes launched by Pope Francis' pontificate: Integral Ecology, Social Friendship and Mercy.

WYD TV

In order to bring WYD Lisbon 2023 to all those who couldn't be physically present, WYD TV followed the whole of World Youth Day Lisbon 2023 in the five official languages - Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and English. Spread throughout the various spaces and venues of the largest gathering of young people from all over the world, WYD TV made it possible for WYD to truly be for everyone.

"Caring Families"

In addition to the host families who opened their homes to the young pilgrims from all over the world who came to Lisbon to meet the Pope, WYD Lisbon 2023 also had the support of "Caring Families", volunteer carers who the young people could count on for any situation in which they needed help.

City of Joy

The City of Joy is the name of the space that brought together the Vocations Fair - where young pilgrims could get in touch with various movements, associations, communities, religious orders and social projects - and the Park of Forgiveness - the space where pilgrims could meet the Merciful Christ through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Space for Catholic influencers

In addition to the Catholic Influencers Festival, which had the motto "The Church listens to you" and took place in the middle of World Youth Day on 4 August, a space was created for influencers to network. This space provided an opportunity for Catholic influencers from all over the world to get to know each other and the different ways they bring the Gospel to the young people who follow them.