Seoul prepares to welcome young Catholics for World Youth Day 2027: ‘A celebration of hope’

ROME (OSV News) — Preparations are in full swing for World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul, South Korea, where Pope Leo XIV is expected to join young Catholics from around the world for the second World Youth Day ever held in Asia.

The Aug. 3-8, 2027, gathering comes more than three decades after the first World Youth Day in Asia, which drew 4 million to 5 million people to Manila with St. John Paul II in 1995, setting a Guinness World Record for largest attendance at a papal event at the time.

With one year remaining before the massive international Catholic youth festival, organizers say planning has intensified. Representatives from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life visited South Korea in July to review preparations and meet with bishops from dioceses that will host pilgrims in the diocesan days before the main event.

Archbishop Peter Soon-taick Chung of Seoul said the archdiocese has spent the past three years laying the groundwork for the gathering.

“The year ahead will be the time to complete our preparations and welcome young people from every part of the world,” Archbishop Chung said in a statement. “We will do everything possible to make WYD Seoul 2027 a celebration of hope and a witness to the hospitality and solidarity of Korea and Seoul.”

Before arriving in the South Korean capital, international pilgrims will have the option to take part in the traditional “Days in the Diocese” from July 29 to Aug. 2, staying with local communities in 15 dioceses across the country while experiencing the faith, culture, and traditions of the Catholic Church in Korea.

Registration for World Youth Day attendees is scheduled to open in October. The accommodation options will include a large-scale parish homestay program, designed to give visitors an opportunity to experience Korean family life, parish communities and local hospitality while staying with host families.

While World Youth Day is primarily intended for young people ages 14–30, all who wish to participate are welcome, organizers say.

Across the world, parishes and dioceses have already started preparing young people to participate in the pilgrimage to South Korea — which despite being the first non-Christian majority country to host World Youth Day — has a unique Catholic history with the witness of thousands of Christian martyrs who were killed for their faith.

Father Michael Duck Young Kong, a parish priest at St. Mary of the Cross Catholic Parish in Mordialloc, Australia, has been giving talks to the Catholic Youth Australia group and Melbourne’s archdiocesan preparation team on the history and culture of Catholicism in Korea.

He has also turned to social media to help young people prepare, drawing on his Korean heritage to share language tips and what young pilgrims can look forward to when visiting to one of Asia’s largest cities.

“I think the first impression many young Catholics will have when they arrive in Korea is the sheer energy of Seoul — its pace, scale and intensity,” he told OSV News. “Seoul is a vibrant, modern city, and that can feel overwhelming at first, but I actually see that as part of the gift of pilgrimage. It is an invitation to receive what is unfamiliar with an open heart and a spirit of gratitude.”

Father Kong said he is hopeful that “God will awaken something deep and lasting in the hearts of young people through World Youth Day in Seoul” through an encounter with “a living Church, a universal faith and holiness,” adding that World Youth Day could become “a moment for every young participant to respond to the vocation to which they have been called.”

The Catholic Church in Korea has a distinct identity shaped by “the witness of lay believers, by martyrdom and by a long history of perseverance under pressure,” he said.

With no priests at first, the early Church in Korea was led by young lay believers who gathered in secret to study Scripture and live out the Gospel. They strived to continue their life of faith even amid harsh persecutions that spread over one hundred years, leading to many martyrs. Pope Francis beatified 124 Korean martyrs during his apostolic journey to Seoul in 2014 and Pope John Paul II canonized 103 martyr saints.

“Pilgrims will feel a strong sense of piety, communal faith, and public witness,” Father Kong said, expressing hope they will leave Seoul “with a stronger faith, and with a greater desire to say ‘yes’ to God in their daily lives.”

In Spain, a group of young Catholics from Seoul are giving pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago a taste of Korean culture by offering traditional Korean dance and Kpop performances Aug. 4-12 to promote World Youth Day. Another group from the Archdiocese of Seoul traveled this month to the Diocese of Fukuoka in Japan to raise awareness about the major event happening next year.

Organizers marked the one-year countdown to World Youth Day 2027 with the release of the event’s official theme song, “Confidite, Ego Vici Mundum,” meaning “Take courage! I have overcome the world.” The song, selected from 434 entries, including 294 from outside Korea, was written by Korean composer Francis Jiyoon Kim.

The World Youth Day 2027 anthem was released in a both a pop version and a classical version and can be heard online on YouTube. The international version of the hymn has lyrics in six languages.

The official World Youth Day prayer can also be found online in multiple languages. The prayer includes a line asking the Lord to “Kindle the flame of the Korean martyrs’ faith in our hearts, making us into disciples who live out the Gospel of peace, love, and truth.”

Volunteering opportunities are available during the upcoming World Youth Day. Organizers anticipate about 30,000 volunteers, including 10,000 serving in central operations in roles such as pilgrim assistance, interpretation, event management, medical services and safety, along with 20,000 parish volunteers across the Archdiocese of Seoul.

So far, 378 volunteers, including foreign residents in South Korea and international long-term volunteers, are already involved in preparations. Registration for additional short-term volunteers in South Korea and abroad will begin alongside pilgrim registration in October. Organizers said volunteers will receive training and spiritual formation.

About 250 Catholic youth ministry representatives from bishops’ conferences around the world will travel to Seoul to get an introduction to Korean culture at the Second International Preparatory Meeting Sept. 14-17.

The meeting, jointly organized by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life and the World Youth Day organizing committee, will coordinate planning to take into account the needs of international delegations, while giving the Catholic youth ministers a taste of Korean culture.

For young people still undecided about making the journey to Seoul for World Youth Day, Father Kong’s advice is simple: “Go and see.”

“So many young people today are carrying real questions and anxieties about their lives and their futures. I would encourage them that this gathering could become a moment where they glimpse a light in the midst of that,” he said, adding that it is an opportunity “not only for believers, but also for young people without faith to encounter the presence of God.”

He said the invitation reflects the World Youth Day 2027 theme, “Take courage, I have conquered the world” (John 16:33).