In a video message, the pontiff states that he is "looking at August 2023! A year and a few months away..."

"I am looking at Portugal, I am looking at Lisbon, I am looking at Fátima, I am looking at meeting all of you... And you, in Portugal and in the various countries, are working as volunteers and looking in the same direction", says the Pope, adding: "It is not easy! It is not easy because we go from crisis to crisis".

"We came out of a pandemic crisis, we entered an economic crisis and now we are in the crisis of war, which is one of the worst evils that can happen! In the midst of all these crises, you have to prepare and help so that the event of August 2023 be a young event, a fresh event, an event with life, an event with force, a creative event", said Pope Francis.

The Pope challenges that, in the organization of WYDLisboa2023, they do not draw on the past but instead look to the future.

"You have to create the meeting. If you are not creative, if you are not poets, this meeting will not work, it will not be original, it will be a photocopy of other meetings", underlines the Pope, adding that "the meeting has to be original, with everyone's contribution".

The leader of the Catholic Church, who is expected in Portugal for the closing of WYDLisboa2023, scheduled for the period from August 1 to 6, is peremptory in defending that "crises are overcome together, not alone".

"And crises put us to the test to come out better. You don't come out of crises the same: we come out better or worse. And the challenge that is posed today is to come out better! And the best thing for you is to be creative: you are creative, poets!" he says in the message.

The message ends with an appeal to prayer. "I pray that this meeting will be a fruitful one. That each one of us will leave better than when he arrived. I ask you, please, to pray for me, because I also need you to support me with prayer", says the Pope, before releasing a "See you August!!" of 2023.