The announcement was made from the Jesuit headquarters in Rome in a press communiqué released on Jan. 30.

During a press conference on the flight from Panama to Rome, the pope spoke on a variety of topics, including the situation in Venezuela, the issue of married priests, sex education in schools and the Vatican's sex abuse summit.

During his visit to La Casa Hogar El Buen Samaritano where he lead the Angelus, he also prayed for the victims of the terrorist attack today in a cathedral in the Philippines and a recent terrorist attack on a police academy in Bogota, Colombia, as well as for those who died in tragic accidents in Brazil and Mexico this past week.

He told them, “Dear young people, you are not the future but the now of God and he invites you and calls you in your communities and cities to go out and find your grandparents and elders; to stand up and with them to speak out and realize the dream that the Lord has dreamed for you.” 

The presence of the pope at W.Y.D. was something of the utmost importance, an invaluable gift, and a source of immense inspiration and affirmation of the pilgrims' faith.

The cardinal described W.Y.D. as “an extraordinary event in the life of the church."

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley believes that Venezuela’s interim president, Juan Guaido, “has come up with a formula that could avoid a civil war, could avoid bloodshed” in the country, and he regrets that the country’s military have “not yet” sided with him.

The pope described St. Óscar Romero as one of the “prophetic fruits of the church in Central America.”

Panama’s President, Juan Carlos Varela Rodriguez, gave Pope Francis a very warm state welcome at the Presidential Palace located on the site of the original 1673 building. He welcomed him to this land “of peace and dialogue.”

This year’s W.Y.D takes place less than three months after the conclusion of the Synod for Young People that was held in the Vatican last October.