Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Panama City (Agenzia Fides) – On hearing Pope Francis announce that Panama has been chosen to host the next World Youth Day in 2019, the Bishops of that local Church were overwhelmed with joy, certain that their country is up to the demanding task .
Cardinal José Luis Lacunza, Bishop of the Panama diocese of David said yesterday in Krakow Poland, "although some people have their doubts , Panama is capable of organising the next World Youth Day in 2019, a gathering which will serve as a wakeup call for young Catholics in Panama and all over Latin America ".
Archbishop José Domingo Ulloa of Panama, in his brief intervention, said he is convinced that the World Youth Day in Panama "be like balm for the youth of Central America", a region where "the great majority of young people live in poverty which pushes them towards migration, drug peddling and violence . Whereas a WYD can offer Central American youth a different option for life, a different path, the path of God". The archbishop concluded recalling that it was from the diocese of Panama, the very first diocese to be founded in America in 1513, that the mission began to spread the Gospel throughout what is today the world’s most Catholic of continent. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 01/08/2016)
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