2016-07-31 22:23 update: 2018-09-27, 02:47
Kraków, 31.07.2016. Papież Franciszek wsiada na pokład pasażerskiego Boeinga 787 Dreamliner linii PLL LOT, którym wróci do Rzymu, 31 bm. na krakowskim lotnisku Balice. Papież zakończył wizytę w Polsce. (mr) Fot. PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Pope Francis on Sunday thanked hundreds of thousands of young Catholics from around the world for taking part in this year's celebration of World Youth Day. Before leaving for Rome the pope met with the WYD organising committee, volunteers and benefactors.
"At the conclusion of this celebration, I join all of you in thanking God, the Father of infinite mercy, for allowing us to experience this World Youth Day," the pope said at Campus Misericordiae in Brzegi.
He thanked Archbishop of Krakow Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz and Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, head of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, "for their kind words, and especially for the work and prayer with which they have prepared for this event." He also thanked "all those who have contributed to its successful outcome."
The pope announced that the next World Youth Day will be held in 2019 in Panama. The Mass was attended by Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela Rodriguez, who was on an official visit to Poland that began on Friday.
Cardinal Rylko thanked the pope for choosing Krakow as the site of World Youth Day, which, as he pointed out, coincided with the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, the motto of which is "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
During a meeting at Krakow's Tauron Arena afterwards, the pope thanked the dozen or so thousand volunteers for their "commitment, generosity and dedication in guiding, helping and serving the thousands of young pilgrims" at World Youth Day.
Pope Francis was seen off at Krakow's Balice airport by President Andrzej Duda, Archbishop of Krakow Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, PM Beata Szydlo and government members.
The LOT Polish Airlines plane with the pope on board took off at about 7:30 p.m.
WYD 2016 was the 31st World Youth Day, a tradition begun by the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II in 1985.
In subsequent years, the global gatherings of Catholic youth were held in Santiago de Compostela in Spain (1989); Poland’s Czestochowa (1991); Denver, Colorado, in the United States (1993); the Philippine capital Manila (1995); Paris (1997); Rome (2000); Toronto, Canada (2002); Cologne, Germany (2005); Sydney, Australia (2008); and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2013).
World Youth Day festivities have attracted millions of people over the past three decades. (PAP)
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