Krakow, Poland, Aug 1, 2016 / 15:53 pm
After Pope Francis announced Panama as the host of the next World Youth Day, the country's bishops said the decision is a reflection of his attention to the peripheries and voiced their hope to be a "bridge" for those who come from all continents.
"I think that it will be an occasion a revitalization of the Church in general, and for the youth in particular … not just from Panama, but from Central America and all of Latin America," Cardinal José Luis Lacunza Maestrojuán of David told CNA July 31.
Panama, he said, will be an opportunity for a demographically young Latin America to "charge their battery" in living the Christian life.
He noted how the decision to hold the 2019 WYD in Panama comes just a year after he was named the country's first cardinal, jesting that Pope Francis "made a lot of mischief, the first of which was appointing me cardinal. It was a great mischief!"