Lisbon. Faced with a flood of 1.5 million pilgrims, Pope Francis presided on Sunday at the final Mass of World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, where he asked the new generations not to be afraid and called for the peace.
Acclaimed by a crowd that sang “This is the Pope’s youth!”, the 86-year-old Argentine pontiff took one last mass bath before closing this edition of the largest international gathering of Catholics.
“To you young people who want to change the world (…) and who want to fight for justice and peace (…), do not be afraid,” Francis launched in Spanish, during a ceremony in which he also remembered the conflict zones .
“I feel great pain for dear Ukraine, which continues to suffer so much. Friends, allow me, now an old man, to share with you a dream that I carry in my heart, the dream of peace,” added the spiritual leader of the thousand 300 million Catholics.
In both the vigil on Saturday and the Eucharist on Sunday, 1.5 million people gathered in this vast venue next to the Tagus, the Vatican reported, citing an estimate by the Portuguese authorities.
After sleeping in the open on a warm summer night, the young people woke up to the rhythm of the music played by a Portuguese priest-DJ from the gigantic stage reminiscent of a macro-festival, while a day dawned in which the temperatures came to touch 40 degrees.
“These conferences are a very nice way to feel empowered by the entire community,” said Maricruz Linares, a 25-year-old digital designer from Costa Rica. “It’s impressive to find so many people who think like you,” she added.
To the “far east”
After an extensive tour in a “popemobile”, Francis presided over the mass from the colossal altar that dominated this venue at the gates of Lisbon today packed with faithful waving their flags, as well as 10,000 priests, 700 bishops and 30 cardinals.
“It is extraordinary to be here to see our Pope Francis, who manages to unite people from all over the world,” said Pimentel Gomes, a 52-year-old Brazilian priest.
Before concluding the ceremony, Francisco revealed one of the unknowns of each edition, announcing that Seoul will be the next venue for this macro-event that mobilizes thousands of young people from all over the world.
“And so, in 2027, from the western border of Europe it will move to the Far East, and this is a beautiful sign of the universality of the Church,” he revealed, while a group of pilgrims from this country where around 11 percent of the population is Catholic celebrated at the altar.
After the mass, the pope met with the 24,000 volunteers who participated in the organization of this edition of WYD, postponed for a year due to the pandemic, before heading back to Rome.
Jorge Bergoglio must give the traditional press conference aboard the papal plane, which took off from Lisbon at around 5:20 p.m. GMT, and whose arrival is scheduled three hours later.
Spontaneous
On Saturday morning, the pope had been received by 200,000 faithful at the sanctuary of Fatima, in central Portugal, where he prayed the rosary with young people who were sick, disabled and six prisoners.
Contrary to what was expected, the pope improvised almost his entire speech and did not make the projected references to peace and war in Ukraine, to which he had already referred on Wednesday.
Francisco – who moves in a wheelchair or supported by a cane due to his increasingly fragile health – had already changed the script of one of his speeches on Friday, after spontaneously explaining that “the reflectors” did not work for him and he could not read good.
The Vatican spokesman told AFP that the change on Friday had indeed been due to “a reflection caused by the lighting”, while this Saturday had been “a choice” by the pontiff.
Describing the pope as “tired” at the start of his visit due to his intense schedule of activities, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told public television RTP that the pope “has finished these last two days in great shape.” .
“As the day progressed, he began to feel happy, he was relaxed… He put the papers aside, he said what he had in his heart,” declared the head of state, a conservative politician and fervent Catholic.
Since the beginning of his visit on Wednesday, the first Latin American pontiff addressed numerous issues such as climate change, social networks or pedophilia in the Church, and met privately with a group of victims of abuse.
