Card Dziwisz: Mercy at the heart of WYD in Krakow

Card Dziwisz: Mercy at the heart of WYD in Krakow

(Vatican Radio) The countdown is well and truly on to the start of World Youth Day in Krakow which will take place with Pope Francis from the 26th to the 31st of July. Speaking about the event, the Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow, Stanislaw Dziwisz said the theme of mercy will be at the heart of the celebrations.

In less than two months time young people from 194 countries around the globe will be packing their bags and heading to Poland for World Youth Day which will take place in Krakow.

This celebration will have special significance as it is taking place in the homeland of its founder Pope Saint John Paul II.

According to the Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow, Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was also personal secretary to the Polish Pope, there is great enthusiasm in his country ahead of the event.

Speaking to Vatican Radio, Cardinal Dziwisz said it will be the World Youth Day of Mercy.

“They wish to come to Krakow to meet the Holy Father, but I also think that they want to come here in this Year of Mercy, because Krakow is the capital of the Divine Mercy. There Jesus Christ gave messages to the whole world: he give them to Sister Faustina, but what could she do alone? Then another apostle, came John Paul II, who brought this message, this fire on the devotion of Divine Mercy to the whole world; and now the Holy Father Francis comes, with the same theme, that of mercy. 

Cardinal Dziwisz also noted that since the  pontificate of Pope John Paul II successive Popes have reached out to young people and actively participated in World Youth Days.

"Certainly we see a continuity", he said,  "John Paul II began it, then followed Pope Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis. John Paul II saw that young people seek, ask, you have to give them answers, we must guide them. Young people need a good shepherd…”

World Youth Day 2016 takes place in Poland from 26th to the 31st July.

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