Rivers of young people flowed through the streets of Lisbon on their way to Eduardo VII Park on Aug. 3 for the World Youth Day welcome ceremony with Pope Francis.

Over a three-course meal with young people, Pope Francis cracked jokes and talked soccer but also addressed the tough topics that young Catholics are grappling with today, such as abortion and euthanasia.

Saying his glasses “aren’t working,” Pope Francis put aside his prepared text and told representatives of Portuguese charities to make their love “concrete” and leave a mark on the world with their lives.

Young people were going to confession on street corners and park benches throughout Lisbon during World Youth Day, but in the 150 plywood confessionals set up in Vasco da Gama Garden three of them found themselves face to face with Pope Francis.

A summer box office hit is garnering both kudos and concerns for its approach to the issue of child trafficking.

Typically observed every 25 years, a Holy Year or jubilee can draw millions of pilgrims to Rome — a 2,775-year-old city of 2.9 million people that already infamously copes with an average of 7 to 10 million tourists a year.

Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, the Knights’ supreme chaplain, introduced Mother Agnes as “a true disciple of the Lord working in a profoundly difficult apostolate.”

Before a sea of waving flags representing countries large and small from across the globe, Pope Francis told some 500,000 singing, shouting and swaying young people that God has called each person to him by name, not their social media handle.

A federal death sentence for the man convicted of a 2018 mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue marks the first such penalty sought for and won by the Biden administration, despite President Joe Biden’s pledge as a candidate to end the practice at the federal level.

Over 1,300 groups comprised of more than 28,600 individuals from across the United States joined the Portuguese WYD. The U.S. is among the five largest delegations participating in WYD, which is taking place Aug. 1-6 in Lisbon.