Portugal’s government expects to spend €36.5 million on hosting the next World Youth Day, an event for young people organised by the Catholic Church, to be held in Lisbon and neighbouring Loures in August 2023, with the presence of Pope Francis
The cabinet on Thursday approved an increase of €20 million, plus VAT, in funding to stage WYDLisbon2023, as it is also known, according to a source in the office of the minister of state and parliamentary affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes.
The same source clarified to Lusa that an amendment to the cabinet resolution on the organisation of the event had been approved, “strengthening the powers of the project group for WYD2023 and ensuring the financial capacity to meet the new responsibilities that the Government had to take on.”
The extra funding now approved was €20 million, plus VAT, raising the estimated total costs to the central government to €36.5 million, the source confirmed, adding that this figure does not include costs with security, mobility, health, among others, “since registration for the event only opens in the coming weeks and everything will depend on the total number of participants.”
Lisbon was the city chosen by Pope Francis for the next World Youth Day, which is to take place between 1 and 6 August next year, with the main ceremonies to be held at Parque Tejo, north of the Park of Nations (the former Expo 98 site), on the bank of the River Tagus, on land owned by the municipalities of Lisbon and Loures.
In addition to the amount estimated by the government, Lisbon city council in mid-September announced that it planned to spend “more than 30 million euros” on the event, with the deputy mayor, Filipe Anacoreta Correia, telling Lusa on 13 September that the process of sharing responsibilities with the central government had “already been completed” at that time.
“It is under evaluation, but we estimate that it will be more than thirty million euros,” said Anacoreta Correia, a councillor for the People’s Party (CDS-PP), who has been charged with overseeing preparations for and the organisation of WYDLisboa2023.
In early August, during a second visit to the future site of the event, on both banks of the River Trancão, between Lisbon and Loures, the minister of state and parliamentary affairs, who is the member of government who heads the WYDLisboa2023 project group, declined to talk about the projected total cost of the event.
The staging of WYDLisboa2023 will involve “several spaces of the city of Lisbon – in which daily events and a diversified programming will take place – namely Parque Tejo, Parque Eduardo VII, Terreiro do Paço, Alameda Dom Afonso Henriques and/or Belavista Park,” according to the written proposal, which lists the various tasks of the city council in these spaces, from the recovery of the Beirolas landfill to the stages with a backstage area.
The idea of periodic World Youth Day events was an initiative of Pope John Paul II, after the success of a meeting staged in Rome in 1985, which had been proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Youth Year (IYY).
After that first WYD in Rome, subsequent ones have been held in Buenos Aires (1987), Santiago de Compostela, in Spain (1989), Czestochowa, Poland (1991), Denver, US(1993), Manila (1995), Paris (1997), Rome (2000), Toronto (2002), Cologne, Germany (2005), Sydney, Australia (2008), Madrid (2011), Rio de Janeiro (2013), Krakow, Poland (2016) and Panama (2019).
The 2023 edition, which is to be closed by Pope Francis, was initially planned for this year but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
