Pope's choices for next World Youth Day celebrations are focused on hope

Gustavo Mejia, youth director at St. Joseph Parish in Miami Beach, helps carry the South Florida World Youth Day Cross during Mass Aug. 6, 2023, concluding a weeklong series of parallel World Youth Day events Aug. 1-6 mirroring those that took place in Lisbon, Portugal, for those unable to travel there. (OSV News photo/Tom Tracy)

by Catholic News Service

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As Catholic young people around the world prepare for the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis has asked them to focus on hope.

Before the Jubilee of Young People, which will be part of the Holy Year celebration, and the next international celebration of World Youth Day in 2026 in Seoul, South Korea, dioceses around the world are to celebrate World Youth Day on a local level on the feast of Christ the King.

The Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life announced Sept. 26 that Pope Francis had chosen as the theme for the upcoming Nov. 26 celebration "Rejoicing in hope," from Romans 12:12.

And for World Youth Day Nov. 24, 2024, he chose: "Those who hope in the Lord will run and not be weary," drawing from the Lord's promise in Isaiah 40:31.

The theme for the jubilee year itself is "Pilgrims of Hope."

Announcing the themes, the dicastery quoted the Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, which said, "The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men and women of today, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ."

"Now as then, in today's difficult times, the church wishes to rekindle hope in the world," the dicastery said. "To do this, she relies especially on young people, who are the leading figures of history and 'missionaries of joy.'"

"With the themes of the two forthcoming World Youth Days, His Holiness now invites young people to deepen their understanding of Christian hope and to witness joyfully that Christ is alive," the dicastery said.