Resuming weekly audiences, Pope summarizes experience of World Youth Day
September 04, 2013
At his public audience on September 4, Pope Francis spoke about his trip to Brazil for World Youth Day, saying that his experience could be summarized in three words: welcome, celebration, and mission.
The Pope was resuming his regular Wednesday audiences after a summer hiatus, and followed the usual papal pattern, devoting his next public audience to a report on his recent trip abroad. He spoke with enthusiasm about the young people he encountered in Rio de Janeiro in July.
“They do not end up in the newspapers, because they do not commit acts of violence; they do not provoke scandals, and so they do not make the news,” the Pope remarked. However, he said, their lively faith makes them “a potent force for making the world a more just and beautiful place, for transforming it!” World Youth Day, he said, was a powerful reminder of the Good News of faith, “ever if it does not appear in the newspapers or on television.”
Regarding the three words that he used to summarize his experience, the Pope said that the welcome he and others received in Brazil was beautiful and moving. “Bonds are created that remain, especially in prayer,” he said. World Youth Day was a celebration, he said, because it highlighted “the greatest celebration of all, which is the celebration of faith, when together we praise the Lord, we sing, we listen to the Word of God.” Finally, he said, “mission” is the essential purpose of World Youth Day, because each young participant is “in the eyes of God an apostle of his Kingdom.”
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