From Catholic News Agency:
“The next World Youth Day in the year 2016 will be in Krakow, in Poland!” the Pope said at the close of Sunday Mass in Rio July 28.
The event is sure to attract millions.
Bl. Pope John Paul II was Archbishop of Krakow before his election to the papacy. The archdiocese has about 1.5 million Catholics and over 1,100 diocesan priests across 439 parishes, according to the website Catholic Hierarchy.
Cardnal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the present Archbishop of Krakow, was personal secretary to John Paul II.
Poland has over 38 million people, about 90 percent of whom are Catholic, the CIA World Factbook says.
Poland is one of the most Catholic countries in Europe. Though the nation remained staunchly Catholic under Soviet-imposed atheistic communism, and took special pride in the papacy of John Paul II, the country has become somewhat more secularized in the last two decades. Weekly church attendance has dropped below 40 percent.
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