With preparations ramping up for the upcoming World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, Portugal, next summer, participants can expect an interreligious and ecumenical focus, said the Canadian coordinator for the event.

VATICAN CITY – Young men and women can live a true experience of the church by joining together and reconnecting with the past, Pope Francis told Catholic young people.

VATICAN CITY – Archbishop José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta of Panama officially announced the dates of the next World Youth Day on Friday (Jan. 20), which is set to take place in January, rather than July as is usual, due to the weather.

This trip has been two years in the making. I can’t help but think back to when I first decided that I wanted to go on this pilgrimage.

The World Youth Day pilgrimage begins at the local level.

With less than six months before young Canadians leave for Krakow, Poland, this July, youth ministry groups are hard at it preparing their pilgrims for spiritual formation.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis asked the world’s young Catholics to perform spiritual and corporal works of mercy every month in the run-up to World Youth Day next July.

Registration is now open for World Youth Day 2016 and Canadian pilgrims are beginning to mobilize. Individuals, groups of friends, parishes and archdioceses are all preparing for their trip to Krakow, Poland, next summer.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis was the first pilgrim to sign up for World Youth Day to be held in Krakow, Poland, launching the opening of registration.

VATICAN CITY - The official logo and prayer for World Youth Day 2016 were unveiled in the event's host city -- Krakow, Poland -- by the city's archbishop, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz.

It is both proper and gratifying to see the success of World Youth Day in Rio as a massive, marvelous “yes” to Christian faith.

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM BRAZIL - Pope Francis said he was responding to the clear wishes of the College of Cardinals when he set up commissions to study the Vatican bank, Vatican financial and administrative procedures and the reform of the Roman Curia.

RIO DE JANEIRO - With the young pilgrims of World Youth Day, Pope Francis was encouraging and challenging; with the bishops, priests and religious who minister to them he was firm and blunt.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Pope Francis spent the morning and early afternoon of July 26 with about two dozen young people from different countries and diverse backgrounds, in a range of encounters that illustrated his characteristic emphasis on inclusion and reconciliation.

RIO DE JANEIRO - With his cross and resurrection, Christ promises to walk with and ease the burden of every suffering person, whether that suffering comes from violence, addiction, a broken family, hunger, persecution or the death of a loved one, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis is the first pope from Latin America and he ensured South America was the destination for his first foreign trip. So it was no surprise that the Argentine Pope was welcomed to World Youth Day in Brazil by huge, adoring crowds who brought his motorcade to a standstill.