World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro

The Christ the Redeemer statue on the Corcovado, with five children celebrating on the steps below; above, the inscription 'XXVII GMG CITTÀ DEL VATICANO Rio 2013' (Giornata Mondiale della Gioventù — World Youth Day); the name of designer Patrizio Daniele and engraver Maria Carmela Colaneri, and the mint mark 'R'.

World Youth Day ranks among the Holy See's central pastoral instruments, ever since John Paul II founded it in 1985. For the Vatican it is no peripheral mega-event but a direct expression of the papal teaching mission toward the younger generation worldwide. Rio de Janeiro was already the second Brazilian host city in 2013 — after São Paulo in 1991 — underscoring the special importance of Latin America within world Catholicism. Around three million pilgrims from more than 170 countries attended the closing Mass on Copacabana Beach, one of the largest peaceful gatherings of people in recent history. Francis, elected only months earlier, traveled to Rio as newly installed Pope — his first foreign trip as pontiff and, at the same time, a return to his Latin American homeland.

Regarding the statue of Christ on Corcovado, which shapes the coin's motif: it has been Rio's best-known symbol since its inauguration in 1931 and, since 2007, one of the "New Seven Wonders of the World." Designed by the French-Brazilian sculptor Paul Landowski, the 38-meter-high figure of Cristo Redentor stands above the city and is regarded as a landmark of both Brazil and Latin American Christianity. That the Vatican chose precisely this image for its 2013 coin points to the close cultural and religious bond between Rome and Brazil, home to about 125 million Catholics — the largest Catholic community in the world. The coin was issued to mark the 28th World Youth Day, held in Rio de Janeiro from 23 to 28 July 2013.