{"id":27942,"date":"2026-09-17T10:25:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T06:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/?p=27942"},"modified":"2026-09-17T10:25:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T06:25:29","slug":"preparations-in-seoul-for-the-wyd-2027-international-pilgrimage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/27942.html","title":{"rendered":"Preparations in Seoul for the WYD 2027 International Pilgrimage"},"content":{"rendered":"

On September 13\u201317, 2026, the second international preparatory meeting for World Youth Day, to be held in the summer of 2027 in the same city, took place in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. The event was attended by 259 delegates representing Catholic Churches from various countries around the world. Fr. Hovsep Galstyan participated in the meeting, reptresenting the Armenian Catholic Ordinariate of Armenia, Georgia, Russia, and Eastern Europe as one of those responsible for the WYD 2027 pilgrimage. The preparatory meeting was attended by two cardinals, many bishops, other high-ranking clergy, and lay leaders of youth groups.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Opening Holy Mass was celebrated on September 14 by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Holy See\u2019s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life and Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church. In his homily, Cardinal Farrell emphasized the following:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile many young people are struggling today, World Youth Day can help them lift up their gaze to Christ and show a new humanity that can overcome hatred and division. It is worth committing to this preparation; it is worth working, making sacrifices, investing resources, and mobilizing so many people, because young people are the future of the Church and of the world. To rekindle hope in even one young person means helping all of humanity take a step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Dicastery headed by Cardinal Farrell is responsibel for the organization of this large-scale and highly anticipated event for young people every 3 to 4 years in various countries across the world, usually gathering between 1.5 and 2 million participants. This requires a vast amount of organizational work. World Youth Day in Seoul is scheduled to take place from August 3 to 8, 2027.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His Holiness Pope Francis chose Korea as the venue for WYD 2027. During its two-and-a-half-century history, the Church in Korea has endured numerous persecutions by ruling dynasties, suffered hardship during the Korean War and the division of the homeland, and since 1950 has enjoyed a spiritual revival during relatively peaceful years. It possesses a rich experience of suffering and defense of the faith, which it will share with millions of young people, offering them an opportunity to reflect on the roots of their own faith. This was highlighted by Archbishop Peter Chung Soon-Taek of Seoul during the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the conference, speakers addressed the historical experience, results, and pastoral-theological significance of World Youth Day, which has been organized regularly since 1985. Organizers of the past two WYDs shared their experiences in panel discussions: Portuguese Cardinal Am\u00e9rico Aguiar, who presided over WYD Lisbon 2023, and Victor Chang, a layman and secretary of the Panama organizing committee. Speeches were also delivered by young people who support the Holy See’s Dicastery through advisory volunteer work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over the course of three days, the preparation process for participating in WYD 2027 was explained in detail, and the venues for scheduled events in Seoul were shown. Conference members visited the shrine of Korean Catholic martyrs in Jeoldusan and attended Holy Mass at Seoul’s Myeongdong Catholic Cathedral, celebrated by the Archbishop of Seoul. At the conclusion, the diocesan choir performed the official hymn of WYD 2027, featuring beautiful elements of national music, incorporoated in the hymn.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With the blessing of His Excellency Archbishop KevorK Noradounguian, the Ordinariate’s Committee for organizing the pilgrimage to WYD 2027 Seoul was established earlier this year. It consists of two priests responsible for ACYU (Armenian Catholic Youth Union) and seven young people who participated in the 2025 Pilgrimage of Hope to Rome and initiated the formation of the ACYU.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fr. Hovsep Galstyan<\/em><\/p>\n

Chancery of the Armenian Catholic Ordinariate<\/em><\/p>\n

September 17, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Take courage, I have overcome the world!”, Jhn 16:33<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,36,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-en","category-news-en","category-universal-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27943,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27942\/revisions\/27943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}