To celebrate Pope Francis’ presence in Lisbon as part of the World Youth Day (WYD) Lisbon 2023, on the 2nd of August at 6:30pm, there will be a ceremony where trees will be planted representing six big religious families – Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This ceremony will take place in the Tropical Botanical Garden of Lisbon University.

These new trees, in the city of Lisbon, aim to enter the collective memory of the Portuguese people, so that, they can evoke, for many years, the call from Pope Francis to care for nature, to the universal fraternity, and to the peaceful coexistence between religions.

A visit to the exhibition "Symbolism of plants from the Bible and other sacred books" will follow, organized by the WYD 2023 Mission Group of the Government of Portugal, with the collaboration of researchers from the University of Lisbon. It aims to reveal short stories that link plants to the sacred, turning them into symbols for a diversity of peoples and civilizations, religions, and beliefs.

On the occasion, the book "Plants of the Bible in the Belém Gardens in Lisbon", resulting from the collaboration between the 2023 Mission Group and the University of Lisbon, will be presented. The book tries to make known the plants of the Bible in the gardens that we can visit and to highlight the connection between the material and the spiritual that can be transmitted to us by plants.