Vatican confirms Pope’s August trip to Lisbon for World Youth Day, including stop at Fatima

ROME — Pope Francis will travel to Portugal for World Youth Day in the first week of August and visit the popular shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, the Vatican announced on Monday.

The August 2-6 visit is longer than originally expected and covers almost the entire week of the great Catholic assembly that II. It was inaugurated by Saint John Paul to try to encourage young people in their faith.

Ferenc will stay in Lisbon for the duration of the visit, but on August 5 he will take a one-day trip to Fatima. Francis previously traveled there in 2017 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of one of the most extraordinary events of the 20th century Catholic Church: the visions of the Virgin Mary by three shepherd children and the “secrets” she told them.

This time, Francis’ visit took place during the war in Ukraine, compared to when the original visions were reported at a time when Europe was in the First World War.

For a century, the Fatima mystery has fascinated Catholics and non-Catholics alike, combining visions of Our Lady, supernatural weather events and apocalyptic messages of hell, war, communism and the death of the Pope.