Next phase of World Youth Day Korea planning underway

By CathNews New Zealand

March 13th, 2026

Pilgrims from South Korea wave flags and cheer as they participate in a Mass closing the Jubilee of Youth in Rome’s Tor Vergata neighbourhood on August 3, 2025. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)

The next phase of the preparation for World Youth Day Seoul 2027 started with a global online meeting involving more than 200 people. Source: UCA News.

The March 5 online “Kick-off Meeting for the Implementation Phase” of WYD 2027 was jointly hosted by the WYD Seoul Local Organising Committee (LOC) and the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.

Some 245 youth leaders and representatives from bishops’ conferences, ecclesial movements and communities around the world joined the meeting. The event was moderated from the Dicastery’s conference room in Rome.

In his opening address, Archbishop Peter Soon-taick Chung of Seoul, the president of the LOC, presented four key words that summarise the vision of Seoul 2027: encounter, pastoral care, pilgrimage and mission.

He said the upcoming World Youth Day should be “a place where young people discover that they are not alone, encounter God and one another, and are sent back to their daily lives renewed in faith.”

He also described Seoul as “a city where tradition and the future meet, where hospitality and community are lived, and where peace is deeply longed for”.

Fr Franco Galdino, the youth coordinator of the Dicastery, said that World Youth Day is “a shared journey in which the Church accompanies young people toward an encounter with Christ”.

The meeting had a presentation on the Church in Korea, the pilgrimage of the WYD symbols and the pastoral and spiritual meaning of WYD Seoul 2027.

Organisers introduced the event’s key themes and characteristics, including Korean culture, language and Seoul’s identity as a technologically advanced city. The official website, social media channels and the LOC’s international communication contact points were also presented.

There will be nine pilgrim package types to be offered, based on meal and accommodation options. The package contributions will increase by 10 per cent compared to previous WYDs, reflecting global inflation and local costs while seeking to keep the burden on pilgrims as low as possible.

WYD 2027 is scheduled to take place from July 29 to August 8, 2027.

FULL STORY

Seoul WYD 2027 implementation phase preparations begin (UCA News)