Lisbon 2023: «The biggest events in the history of cities were always a World Youth Day» – José Sá Fernandes (with photos)
Government Coordinator Environmental and social impact of rehabilitation works highlights, along the Tagus River
Lisbon, 04 jun 202 (Ecclesia – Complexo Logístico da Bobadela is already moving to host the Vigil and Closing Mass of World Youth Day (WYD 5 and 6), August 2023, in the first edition of this Church event Catholic in Portuguese territory.
José Sá Fernandes, coordinator of the project group for WYD Lisbon 2023, expressed to the ECCLESIA Agency his satisfaction with the work that is being carried out and which he classifies as “extraordinary”, highlighting that the work goes beyond the meeting of young people with the Pope.
“In this place that more than 1 thousand people and the young people who will be born here are also a park that will serve for change”, the person in charge, for the government here are also the agents of change that will serve, the person in charge, for the Portuguese government .
The next issue of the ’70X7′ Program, on World Environment Day, wanted to know how these restoration works are also an environmental achievement for the Municipalities of Lisbon and Loures.
José Sápal was distinguished for “a naturalization of the marsh that stood out as one of the most effective ways of absorbing carbon” that constituted one of the most effective ways of absorbing carbon” that constituted one of the most outstanding ways of ‘La Francisco de carbon absorption’, from the Pope”.
Much of the land that will host WYD 2023 is already fenced and soil cleaning and leveling work is underway.
The area is a fortress in the middle of the Trancão River, already unpolluted and which is reason for José Sá Fernandes to remember Pope Francis.
“The Pope talks a lot about building bridges, uniting what is separated and there a bridge will be born that will forever link the two municipalities” he says.
The coordinator of the WYD group values the enjoyment that many will build this place, taking advantage of the banks and the proximity to the river, “a place to renaturalize banks, to contemplate, there is no environmental measure than this bank”, considers Sá Fernandes.
Anyone who passes by will notice the big poster that already announces the event with the Pope: built by the Câmara de Loures, which José Sá Fernandes is also a sign of the good understanding and reference of the spirit of collaboration that is felt between the various partners.
The area that will host the completion of the Nations two WYD areas in a length of three, with the altar of the extension extension to be located to the north of Parque das Nações – facing all this in lengths divided by the Trancão, but transposable by bridges: one that will remain in space and another, military, that will be dismantled at the end of the event.
As for the number of young people arriving in Lisbon, José Sá Fernandes refuses estimates, they face unstable times, marked by the pandemic and war in Ukraine.
“I’m sure there will be a number of possibilities for a last minute.
Sá Fernandes also highlights that these works revert to the population and are always an advantage.
“The value of the meeting of young people with the Pope and the value of transforming, forever, a land that serves no one into a space for the entertainment of 100 thousand people, is incalculable”, he maintains.
On Monday, the first meeting of the Fair Commission takes place, with the presence of elements linked to some key sectors such as health, security or mobility.
“We, those who are setting up the project, should get out of the queue a little because the great protagonist is the youth, the Church, the ecumenical dimension of Pope Francis”, indicates the coordinator.
After the transformation carried out by Expo98 in the riverside area of the Municipalities of Lisbon and Loures, WYD is giving an even greater dimension to this rehabilitation, leaving the population a renovated space, still without a name, but with proposals in this sense.
“I hope that this park has the name that everyone expects and that it will be Parque Papa Francisco” says José Sá Fernandes.
The interview is featured in the 70X7 Program that will be broadcast on Sunday 15, on RTP2.
HM/OC
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