The World Youth Day (WYD) 2023 scheduled to take place in Lisbon, Portugal, will be an opportunity for representatives from São Tomé and Príncipe to make the African island nation close to the equator known, the spokesperson for the Youth Ministry in the country has said.
Speaking to journalists Wednesday, July 5 following an audience with the country’s Prime Minister, Eloisa Cabinda said hundreds of youth have registered to participate in the August 1-6 event.
“The World Youth Day is an opportunity to make our country known,” Ms. Cabinda said, and explained, “We will bring all our dynamism, all our spirit of sanctity, bring our culture, raise our flag, not only represent the Diocese, but in particular represent São Tomé and Príncipe.”
She continued, “At the moment, we already have 670 registered including pilgrims, volunteers and scouts who will be able to participate and support in the organization of the event.”
Ms. Cabinda explained that the number of those registered may still increase, since “some registrations are being made directly with the organization in Lisbon and then communicated to São Tomé.”
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The representative of the Youth Ministry in the Diocese of São Tomé and Príncipe explained that the country is having a significant representation at the WYD 2023 in Lisbon because “Portugal is a much closer country, which is familiar, shares the same language, and represents less participation costs compared to countries that hosted previous events.”
Asked about the possibility of youth taking advantage of the WYD “to emigrate”, Ms. Cabinda said the Diocese followed all the guidelines during the registration process.
“We can’t say that people will take advantage of this event to emigrate because we followed the rules of the Church, the requirements were determined, the people met those requirements and we proceeded to register them. If they have this intention we can’t determine,” she said.
Among the requirements, the youth official further said, “youth must be practicing Catholics, who are part of Church activities and groups. They have to be prepared spiritually so that we can deal with the diversity that we may encounter with other cultures.”
Ms. Cabinda thanked the Embassy of the Republic of Portugal in São Tomé and Príncipe for facilitating the “visa process” for WYD delegates.
