LISBON — Pope Francis closed World Youth Day on Sunday with an enormous outside Mass and his personal “I have a dream” speech, saying it was for world peace, particularly for Ukraine.
About 1.5 million folks attended his closing Mass at a riverside park within the Portuguese capital, the Vatican stated, quoting native authorities. Many of the trustworthy slept outdoor, having attending a vigil there on Saturday night time, they usually gathered in sweltering warmth.
Speaking after the Mass, the 86-year-old Francis urged the younger folks to take the fraternal experiences of the six-day jamboree again residence and apply them to their each day lives.
“Dear friends, allow me, this old man, to share with you young people a dream that I carry within me: it is the dream of peace, the dream of young people praying for peace, living in peace and building a peaceful future,” Francis stated.
“As you return home, please continue to pray for peace. What is more, you are a sign of peace for the world, showing how different nationalities, languages and histories can unite instead of divide. You are the hope of a different world,” he stated.
He requested them to think about the younger individuals who couldn’t come to the occasion due to the world’s many armed conflicts and wars, including: “In thinking of this continent, I feel great sorrow for beloved Ukraine, which continues to suffer greatly.”
Francis, who was returning to Rome on Sunday night after an occasion to thank volunteers on the World Youth Day pageant, met a delegation of 15 younger folks from Ukraine throughout his journey.
10,000 monks readily available
Sunday’s Mass was concelebrated by 700 bishops and 10,000 monks, who distributed communion to the massive crowd.
Marina Sylvester, 22, from the pope’s native Argentina, was certainly one of tons of of hundreds of younger individuals who spent the night time within the riverside space.
She awoke at daybreak and by 7 a.m. she was already displaying off her dance strikes as a well known Portuguese priest DJ, Guilherme, performed upbeat songs. “It has been one of the best experiences of my life,” she stated.
The pope introduced that the following World Youth Day can be held in Seoul, South Korea in 2027.
One of the recurring themes of the pope’s go to was social media and its probably unfavourable results on younger folks.
During the week, Francis urged them to beware the false happiness lurking within the digital world and at one other occasion, the younger folks themselves mirrored on their anxieties, enslavement to the “tyranny” of social media and craving to avoid wasting the planet.
The journey passed off within the shadow of a report six months in the past by a Portuguese fee stated no less than 4,815 minors had been sexually abused by clergy—largely monks—over seven many years within the nation.
It was only one in a collection of studies world wide which have uncovered clerical intercourse abuse and rattled the Catholic Church in recent times.
Francis stated on Wednesday the Church wants a “humble and ongoing purification” to take care of the “anguished cries” of victims of clerical sexual abuse, and met privately with 13 victims. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com