World Youth Day 2027 Seoul preparations are in full swing, where Pope Leo XIV is expected to join young Catholics from around the world for the second World Youth Day ever held in Asia.
Written By Courtney Mares (OSV News)
The gathering, which will take place on 3–8 August 2027, comes more than three decades after the first World Youth Day in Asia, which drew between four and five million people to Manila with Pope John Paul II in 1995, setting a Guinness World Record for largest attendance at a papal event at the time.
World Youth Day 2027 Seoul: One Year to Go
With one year remaining before the massive international Catholic youth festival, organisers 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 of Seoul Peter Soon-taick Chung 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.’
Australian Catholics Prepare for World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul
Pilgrimage is an invitation to receive what is unfamiliar with an open heart and a spirit of gratitude.
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, including the witness of thousands of Christian martyrs who were killed for their faith.
The parish priest at St Mary of the Cross Catholic Parish in Mordialloc, Fr Michael Duck Young Kong, 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.’
Fr 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’.
Korea’s Catholic Martyrs: The Faith Behind World Youth Day 2027 Seoul
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.
The young believers 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 a period of 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 canonised 103 martyr saints.
‘Pilgrims will feel a strong sense of piety, communal faith and public witness,’ Fr 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’.
World Youth Day 2027 Seoul Theme Song Released
Take courage, I have conquered the world.
Organisers 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 was written by Korean composer Francis Jiyoon Kim.
The World Youth Day 2027 anthem was released in 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.’
For young people still undecided about making the journey to Seoul for World Youth Day, Fr 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).
This article was first published by the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and has been republished to EWTN Australia.
