And indeed the Rector Major is in Portugal to participate in World Youth Day, which will be held in Lisbon from tomorrow, 1 August until Sunday the 6th, and which is estimated to gather over a million pilgrims around Pope Francis in the Portuguese capital.

Waiting for the 10th Successor of Don Bosco at Portela airport was a group of young volunteers from WYD DON BOSCO 23 – the organisation responsible for the involvement of the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) at the WYD in Lisbon 2023 – accompanied by the current Provincial of the Salesians in Portugal and Cape Verde, Fr José Aníbal Mendonça, and by Salesians Fr João Chaves, his Vice-Provincial, Fr Tarcízio Morais, recently appointed Provincial, and Fr Luís Almeida, member of the Provincial Council.

Upon the arrival of the Rector Major at the Salesian provincial headquarters in Lisbon, the volunteers who able to do so interrupted their tasks to welcome him in the school yard. Fr Á.F. Artime greeted them one by one, thanking them for their welcome and for the work they are doing.

The Rector Major will now be in Lisbon until 8 August. In addition to accompanying the traditional events of the WYD event, on 2 August, he will preside, alongside the Mother General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Chiara Cazzuola, at the celebration of the Salesian Youth Movement, the so-called "SYM Day".

During the morning in Lisbon, the two religious leaders will meet about 300 young people representing the various Salesian Provinces and Circumscriptions as part of the SYM Forum. The SYM Festival will take place in the afternoon, and throughout the evening, and will bring together the more than 8,000 SYM youth who have come to Lisbon for the WYD.

At the end of his visit to Portugal, the Rector Major will preside over the installation Mass for Fr Tarcizio Morais as the new Superior of the St Anthony Province of Portugal and Cape Verde.

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