PALM BEACH GARDENS | Every three to four years, Catholic young people from around the world gather to encounter Jesus, their pope and each other in a spirit of love, peace, education and mutual respect. In August 2027, an international World Youth Day will occur in Seoul, South Korea, and the Diocese of Palm Beach wants to see as many young people as possible travel the more than 7,000 miles to attend.
“With great joy and a spirit of hope, our diocese now sets its course toward World Youth Day 2027, preparing to offer our young people the opportunity to take part in one of the most vibrant and transformative experiences in the life of the church,” said Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez in a March 20, 2026, Florida Catholic column.
“World Youth Day is far more than a single event. It is a pilgrimage of faith — an extended journey that invites young people to deepen their relationship with Christ, encounter the universal church and discover their place within it,” the bishop wrote. “While the celebrations in Seoul will be a moment of extraordinary grace, the richness of World Youth Day lies in the path that leads us there.”
The diocese’s path to Seoul has begun with an invitation to parishes/missions and the three Catholic high schools to appoint a WYD delegation captain to provide information to potential pilgrims ages 16-39 in cooperation with the diocesan planning committee. Each captain will be a trained WYD ambassador.
Cathy Loh, director of the diocesan Office of Marriage, Family Life, Faith Formation, and Youth and Young Adult Ministry, said parishes were to have a “soft rollout” of WYD plans on Easter weekend, April 4-5, with more active promotional efforts April 11-12. Bishop Rodríguez, who plans to travel to South Korea with the group, recorded a video that parishes/missions can show at weekend Masses.
The WYD itinerary will begin with departure from Palm Beach International Airport on Sunday, Aug. 1, said Andy Baker, coordinator of youth and young adult ministry, with arrival in South Korea the next day. The pilgrims will begin with an Aug. 3 walking tour of the city, where the Palm Beach contingent will venerate relics at local parishes and tour cultural sites, including places related to the Korean martyrs, 103 men, women and children who died for their faith in the 18th and 19th centuries.
“We will spend the next few days participating in catechesis that will be given to us by bishops from around the world in the languages of everybody who is there,” he said. “Then in the afternoon and evening, it’s faith-filled celebration time, where there will be moments for reception of the sacraments and just fellowship and time together.”
Pope Leo XIV is set to arrive Friday, Aug. 6, and lead the Stations of the Cross. The next day, pilgrims will travel (mostly on foot) to the site of the closing events, including an evening prayer vigil with the Holy Father, Eucharistic adoration, and praise and worship time. “Then it kind of slowly trickles off into the evening, where everybody just begins to settle down, and they actually just sleep right where they are,” Baker said. The pilgrims will wake up Sunday morning to celebrate Mass with Pope Leo, and he will announce the location of the next World Youth Day.
The group “will actually spend time together on the final evening in a special way with Bishop Manuel, who is planning a diocesan excursion to a location of cultural, historical or religious significance,” Baker said. “Bishop will speak to us deeply about our vocation in life, kicking off his initiative for vocations and also for youth and young adult ministry. We will conclude the evening with a special dinner together at that location or nearby.”
The group’s itinerary concludes with the journey home on Aug. 9 and arrival in West Palm Beach on the 10th.
The cost of $5,499 each includes four-star hotel accommodations, breakfasts and dinners, WYD lunches, round-trip airfare, ground transportation, WYD registration fees and tour guide. Financial assistance may be available to pilgrims who qualify, but each participating parish and delegation is asked to engage in fundraising efforts. In addition, the diocese will engage local donors asking them for financial support to help defray expenses for WYD participants.
A $500 down payment is due by May 31, 2026, with four payments of $1,250 due July and September 2026 and January and April 2027. Loh and Baker stressed that the $500 deposit is transferable, in the event someone is unable to go.
The hope is that those who travel to WYD will experience a deeper sense of community, diocesan unity and a larger vision of the church, meaning a “global awareness that the church is larger than the parish I go to on Sunday,” Baker said.
Events like these are designed to ignite a flame of conversion, he said, and “there will be an increased desire to come home and make ministry happen at the parish level. And so, I think one of the fruits is going to be the growth of youth and young adult ministry in the parishes.”
“And honestly, that’s our obligation,” Loh added. “If we’re going to lead people on these experiences, then it is our obligation to follow through with them and support them at the local parish level. The key is helping them maintain the excitement and desire to grow deeper in their faith and help lead others to Christ.”
“We have to stop looking at young people — young adults and youth — we have to stop thinking about them as the church of the future because when we think about them in the context of the future, I don’t have to think about that right now,” Baker said. “But if we think about them as the church of today, the young church, then we have to change our mindset and recognize, ‘OK, I have to feed them,’ because you’re raising them up to be the leaders of the church and of the world. If we don’t pour into them now, we won’t have them where we want them later.
“We have to stop thinking about youth and young adults as the church of tomorrow because it can cause us to delay our response to their immediate needs,” he said. “But if we think about them as the church of today, the young church, then we will change our mindset and recognize that we must form new leaders today.”
