Date: 22 to 27 January 2019

120 Order of Malta volunteers will be participating in the XXXIV World Youth Day, to be held in Panama from 22 al 27 January 2019. Pope Francis, the very first to register for the event in February last year, will also be attending. The volunteers, all specialised in accident and emergency care, will be coming from France, Italy and Germany. They will be present at all the main international events and masses, inspired this year by a passage from the gospel of St. Luke: “I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word”.

After the assistance provided in Rome during the Jubilee of Mercy, the Order of Malta is renewing its mission of helping pilgrims, and is doing it with a single voice and a single face: for this occasion the volunteers, albeit from different national corps, will all wear identical uniforms. The particular feature of their contribution will be their ability to interact in various languages with the young pilgrims from many different countries.

Some 250.000 young pilgrims are expected in the central American country. Pope Francis will bring them a message of “hope” especially for “those who are victims of violence, those forced to emigrate, and those suffering at the hands of drug traffickers”.

The Order of Malta volunteers will work alongside the Panama first-aid, civil defence and fire-fighting services in close cooperation with the Vatican Gendarmerie Corps and Swiss Guards.