Bishop Peter Musikuwa, Chairman for the youth apostolate under Pastoral Directorate of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi, is set to lead Fifteen Malawian youths who will be travelling to Poland to attend one-week World Youth Day celebrations in which Pope Francis is expected to participate.

The delegates who will be setting off on Monday 18, July; have been drawn from secondary schools and colleges and will also be accompanied by two priests.

In a communication, His Lordship Musikuwa, who is also the Bishop of Chikwawa Diocese, said, “This is a special time that God has set aside for the youth in the Church to wholly increase their faith amidst all sorts of disturbances encountered every passing day.”

He said that this year’s World Youth Day whose theme is: Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy, as taken from Mathew 5:7, will give Malawi’s Catholic Youths an opportunity to learn and share their faith with other Catholic Youths worldwide.

“This year’s World Youth Day is so significant to the Polish Church as it is attributed to the Founder of the World Youth Day, St John Paul II-Pope,” he said.

Excited about the trip to Poland, Alinafe Kondwani, a student in journalism at Malawi Polytechnic College said she feels proud to be part of the Malawian youths going for the World Youth Day.

“This is a rear moment to actually meet the Pope and interact with other youths from other countries. As a student, I am going to learn a lot from this World Youth Day. I feel proud to be a Catholic honestly,” she said.

World Youth Day is an international Catholic event (festival) focused on faith and youth. This is the second time that Poland is hosting the World Youth Day as it hosted it in 1991.