The next international World Youth Day celebration will be held in Panama from January 22 – 27, 2019, Archbishop José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta announced today. The event will be hosted during the winter months to avoid the country’s rainy season, which occurs in July and August and overlaps with the traditional dates for WYD.

The theme of the event is “I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

In a previous interview with La Estrella Panamá, the Apostolic Nuncio in Panama, Archbishop Andrés Carrascosa Coso, assured the world that the organization of this enormous global event does not exceed the country’s capabilities. The event to be hosted by Panama is expected to be much smaller than previous WYDs; Panama is expecting to host about 500,000 pilgrims, significantly fewer than the 2.4 million and 3.7 million pilgrims estimated to have attended WYD Krakow 2016 and Rio 2013, respectively.

The new age requirement to participate in the 2019 WYD with the Diocese of Kamloops is a minimum of 19 years old. To travel with the diocesan delegation to Poland pilgrims must be born before June 30, 1997. The liability issues, monitoring and supervision ratios, leadership and fellow participant screening that is associated with traveling with minors is not worth the risk.

WYD is not designed or meant for our younger youth. It can happen that minors in the group deter young adults from going and hinder and limit their full participation at the events of WYD.

Families with minors may wishes to travel to WYD together but because minors are involved they must travel and register independently and not as part of a parish or diocese. This also means they are not approved to fund-raise or receive funds from our parishes to go to WYD.