It was on the 15th of July that D. Américo Aguiar, president of the JMJ Lisbon 2023 Foundation, visited young people and Ukrainian Catholic communities, in the context of World Youth Day Lisbon 2023.
D. Américo Aguiar, traveled to Ukraine to meet with several young people and families devastated by the war. The president of the JMJ Lisboa 2023 Foundation brought with him a message of hope, as well as the certainty that “Christ does not abandon” and that “in the midst of so much evil, Christ will win”.
Despite all the destruction caused by the war, D. Américo Aguiar said that he brought from the young Ukrainians, “the strength that comes from faith”, having marked in his mind and heart, the image of a “young man who received in his hands, the flag that was on his father’s coffin”.
The Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon added that it is in difficult moments, in moments when our “dreams” are destroyed, that we must remember that, through Christ, it is possible to “rise up” and “recover the joy” of a new life.
The president of the JMJ Lisbon 2023 Foundation also called for us to be “the yeast of the Living Christ”, and that, in this world meeting of young people from all over the world, which is the World Youth Day, we should be like Mary and bring “Christ alive to all”.
D. Américo Aguiar ends his message, referring to the cross he received from the priest of Bucha, a Ukrainian community that was very martyred, recalling that the cross is “our salvation” and that Christ is “our Savior”.
