the first American pope<\/a> are driving stateside interest in the event.<\/p>\nUnlike Portugal \u2014 where Catholics make up roughly 80% of the population \u2014 Catholics in South Korea are a minority. Their population reflects years of persecution in South Korea and in Asia as a whole.<\/p>\n
In North Korea, it is a crime to be a Christian or even to own a Bible. Before Catholicism was decriminalized in South Korea in 1886, about 10,000 Catholics were martyred in the country. One of the martyrs was St. Andrew Kim Taegon, the first native-born Korean Catholic priest, who is one of the patron saints of WYD 2027.<\/p>\n
Neil Alba\u00f1a, associate director of young adult and campus ministry in Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, visited Korea in 2025 and saw preparations for WYD already underway.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Catholicism) is not very commonplace\u201d in Korea, he said in a WYD Sneak Peak meeting hosted by Verso Ministries March 11. \u201cThey struggle with a lot of loneliness and pressures from the world. I think the Catholic Church\u2019s presence there (during WYD) is going to be a very beautiful witness to everybody there \u2014 not just the Catholics there, but for anybody that might be searching and longing as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
A group of WYD attendees from the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, will follow the footsteps of Father Emil Kapaun, a chaplain in the Korean War from Kansas whose cause for sainthood is currently being investigated. The priest, who died in a Korean POW camp on May 23, 1951, was declared \u201cvenerable\u201d by Pope Francis on Feb. 24, 2025, recognizing his heroic virtues.<\/p>\n
Scott Carter, who has been working as the coordinator for Father Kapaun\u2019s cause for 11 years and is helping to organize the diocese\u2019s WYD trip, said that the history of the South Korean martyrs \u201cis very much rich and alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group from Wichita \u2014 which is expected to be about 60 young people, chaperones and priests \u2014 will visit the sites where Father Kapaun risked his life to administer the sacraments to the dying on the battlefield and where he celebrated Mass. From the border, they will look into North Korea, where Father Kapaun ultimately offered his life for other prisoners of war.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to experience the Catholic tradition in Korea because even though as Americans, the Korean experience isn\u2019t our own, as members of the body of Christ \u2014 the communion of saints \u2014 the Church experience is part of our heritage,\u201d Carter said. \u201cThe beauty of how laypeople brought the faith into Korea and the courage of the martyrs there is really going to be a big highlight for the Church around the world and for us as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph Rodriguez, who co-founded the pilgrimage-centered travel agency Vocatio, is helping groups from seven dioceses and 27 parishes and ministries across the U.S. to plan their WYD 2027 trips, for a total of about 2,000 pilgrims. Rodriguez said that many youths are drawn to the trip because of the popularity of Korean culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cKorea is very much in the group consciousness because of K-pop and K-drama. There\u2019s an awareness of Korean culture that didn\u2019t exist five years ago,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez, who had attended six WYDs when Vocatio launched in 2021, said that his experiences at WYD helped form his love for his faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis impact of pilgrimage is more than travel itself,\u201d he said. \u201cOur lives really are a pilgrimage. We\u2019re going towards a destination, we\u2019re not here forever. A physical pilgrimage is a microcosm of that. It helps us on such a deep level spiritually to reorient us. It\u2019s so easy to get caught up in routine, work and normal worries, but pilgrimage puts everything back into its proper perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andy Baker, who has served for seven years as the coordinator of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Palm Beach, Florida, said that Bishop Manuel de Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez of Palm Beach has \u201cbuilt a flame of excitement\u201d around WYD 2027. The diocese, which is planning the trip in partnership with JMJ Youth Pilgrimages, anticipates having 715 registrants.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things that we know young people desire most from their church is community and a sense of belonging. This event is being used to create that community in our parishes, giving new life to and desire for ministry to the young church,\u201d Baker wrote in an Aug. 11 email to OSV News.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe self-evangelization of the Korean Church of yesterday,\u201d he continued, \u201ccould be a juxtaposition of the young Church today \u2014 self evangelizing through digital platforms and formation opportunities outside the normal campus boundaries of a parish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bishop Edward J. Burns of Dallas, chairman of the USCCB\u2019s Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, said that WYD invigorates the faith of young people and sometimes draws them toward a religious vocation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fruits of World Youth Day<\/a> have been an extraordinary blessing to the Church ever since Saint John Paul II gave this great gift to the Church. It truly is a gift that keeps on giving,\u201d Bishop Burns wrote in an Aug. 19 email to OSV News.<\/p>\n\u201cThe pilgrimage begins long before anyone boards an airplane for Seoul,\u201d he said. \u201cIt begins in our parishes, schools, universities, campus ministries, young adult communities, and families, where young people are accompanied in their relationship with Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
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