The World Youth Day 1997 (french: Journées mondiales de la jeunesse 1997) took place from 19 to 24 August 1997 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. About 1,200,000 young people took part in the meeting.

Choice of location

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

announced that he had chosen Paris as the site of this international meeting during the overnight vigil celebration of

World Youth Day World Youth Day (WYD) is an event for young people organized by the Catholic Church that was initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985, sometimes nicknamed in later years as the "Catholic Woodstock". Its concept has been influenced by the Light-Li ...

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

(Vigil of January 14, 1995) in front of five million people, with these words: "Today I wish to announce that the next World Youth Day will be celebrated in Paris, France, in the summer of 1997. Mary of the New Advent! We entrust you with the preparations for this next joyful meeting in the heart of Europe." The choice of the cradle nation of the Enlightenment and

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

was not at all random. In the message of invitation to the WYD of 15 August 1996 at

Castel Gandolfo Castel Gandolfo (, , ; la, Castrum Gandulphi), colloquially just Castello in the Castelli Romani dialects, is a town located southeast of Rome in the Lazio region of Italy. Occupying a height on the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Albano, Castel Ga ...

, the Pope, inviting young people to participate in the year following the World Youth Day in Paris, said: "We live in an era of great transformations, in which ideologies quickly set, which seemed to have long resisted the wear and tear of time, and borders and borders were being redesigned on the planet. Humanity often finds itself uncertain, confused and worried, but the word of God does not end; it travels through history and, in changing events, remains stable and luminous. The faith of the Church is founded on Jesus Christ, the only savior of the world: yesterday, today and forever."

Theme

The theme of the meeting was: "Master where do you live? Come and see". ( Jn 1: 38-39).

The anthem

The hymn of the 12th WYD was Maitre et Seigneur, Venu chez nous (Master and Lord, Come to us).

The program of the days

The Catholic Church in France had indeed wished that the dynamism and the meetings of this gathering do not benefit not only in Paris and the

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but that all the French

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

s can also participate, therefore many several innovations were made.

Archbishop of Paris The Archdiocese of Paris (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Parisiensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Paris'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. It is one of twenty-three archdioceses in France ...

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

Jean-Marie Lustiger Aron Jean-Marie Lustiger (; 17 September 1926 – 5 August 2007) was a French cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Paris from 1981 until his resignation in 2005. He was made a cardinal in 1983 by Pope John Paul II. His lif ...

allow the stay of young people in the dioceses of the host country, in this event was firstly performed a

Calvary Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...

. and then a three-day "youth festival" just before the final gathering in the host city of WYD. This edition of WYD was the first organized with the formula currently in vogue, that is a week of meetings, parties and cultural exchanges between young pilgrims and young residents, with diocesan days and the festival of youth, and a daily possibility of participating in Holy Mass or catechesis, and receive the

Sacrament A sacrament is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments ...

Reconciliation Reconciliation or reconcile may refer to: Accounting * Reconciliation (accounting) Arts, entertainment, and media Sculpture * ''Reconciliation'' (Josefina de Vasconcellos sculpture), a sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos in Coventry Cathedra ...

21 August

The first meeting of young people with the Pope took place in Paris on August 21. The Pope was welcomed by representatives of young people. In the welcome address, John Paul II pointed out that the first time officially at World Youth Day were young people from the countries of the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian. The majority ...

Belarusians , native_name_lang = be , pop = 9.5–10 million , image = , caption = , popplace = 7.99 million , region1 = , pop1 = 600,000–768,000 , region2 = , pop2 ...

Lithuanians Lithuanians ( lt, lietuviai) are a Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another million or two make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Uni ...

Latvians Latvians ( lv, latvieši) are a Baltic ethnic group and nation native to Latvia and the immediate geographical region, the Baltics. They are occasionally also referred to as Letts, especially in older bibliography. Latvians share a common Latvi ...

Estonians Estonians or Estonian people ( et, eestlased) are a Finnic ethnic group native to Estonia who speak the Estonian language. The Estonian language is spoken as the first language by the vast majority of Estonians; it is closely related to other ...

Kazakhs The Kazakhs (also spelled Qazaqs; Kazakh: , , , , , ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; russian: казахи) are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also parts o ...

and representatives of the other

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

n republics and Christians from the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

(600 thousand participants).

23 August

Mass for participants of the 6th International Youth Forum was celebrated on August 23. On that day, the Pope met with the benefactors and organizers at the headquarters of the Apostolic Nunciature. About 800,000 people took part in the evening vigil at Longchamp.

24 August

The final

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

of the event was celebrated by John Paul II at the

Longchamp Racecourse The Longchamp Racecourse (french: Hippodrome de Longchamp) is a 57 hectare horse-racing facility located on the Route des Tribunes at the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, France. It is used for flat racing and is noted for its variety of interlaced tr ...

, presenting 1,100,000/ 1,200,000 and from the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

to Paris, 2000 pilgrims arrived. The pope also turned to non-Catholics seeking answers on the

faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people often ...

Invited

Among the personalities invited, Pope John Paul II also called Archbishop François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuận to give his experience to the young.

1997–2000: three years instead of two

For the first time three years, and not two, will pass from this international edition to the

next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

one: this to make it fall during the

jubilee year A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of ...

. The break of three years instead of two will become a practice, starting from the 2002 edition: the choice is due to the desire not to thicken the calendar too much, allowing the organizers to have more time to prepare the event, now more and more articulated, and to various Christian groups, parishes and associations worldwide to have more

summer Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...

s available.

References

External links

* https://www.vatican.va/gmg/years/gmg_1997_it.html {{World Youth Day World Youth Day Pope John Paul II Catholic Church in France Christianity in Paris Culture of Paris Events in Paris Foreign trips by popes August 1997 events in Europe 1997 in France 1997 in religion Religion in Paris 1997 in Paris