WYD Lisbon’s unlikely surplus launches foundation to invest in Portuguese youth

"We also had a spiritual heritage from World Youth Day that we wanted to perpetuate."

For a while, World Youth Day Lisbon seemed destined for disaster.

First, the Covid pandemic caused the international gathering to be delayed from 2022 to 2023. Then, the invasion of Ukraine launched a war which created economic uncertainty across Europe. World Youth Day organizers braced for the worst, and were conservative in their expectations.

But in t…