THE coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic has claimed another casualty among the festivities of the Catholic Church.
This, as the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has postponed the National Youth Day (NYD) set next year in Naga City to 2022.
"The gathering will now take place in still undetermined month in 2022," CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Youth Executive Secretary Fr. Conegundo Garganta told CBCP News.
The priest said the Archdiocese of Caceres will remain as the host of the event when it is held in 2022.
“We pray that things will improve and that 2022 will be a better year for our young people to come together,” said Garganta.
Originally set in May 2021, it would have been the first time that the Archdiocese of Caceres will host the national youth event.
The last NYD was held in Cebu City in April 2019 and it was attended by more than 20,000 pilgrims from across the country.
It was back in 1986 when the CBCP declared every December 16 as the National Youth Day.
The event is being held in a different diocese every two or three years.
Earlier, the CBCP decided to move the grand celebration of the 500th anniversary of Christianity in the Philippines from April 2021 to April 2022, also due to the global health crisis. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)