In Lisbon, Pope Francis urges youth to “take care of our common home”

First modification: 08/04/2023 – 00:51

3 min

As part of the itinerary of the apostolic trip of Pope Francis to Portugal on the occasion of the XXXVII World Youth Day (WYD), a meeting was held on August 3 with young students from the Catholic University of Lisbon in which the highest hierarch of the Church addressed the deterioration of the environment and the urgency that exists to reverse the devastating effects that millions suffer around the planet.

“We must recognize the dramatic urgency of taking charge of our common home”, he told the almost 6,000 spectators gathered outside the faculty. “This cannot be done without a conversion of the heart and a change in the anthropological vision that is at the base of economics and politics,” she added.

The sovereign of the Vatican City State pointed out that we are living in “a moment of great destruction of the planet” and that It is essential to seek real measures to counteract this crisis, since “we cannot settle for simple palliative measures or timid and ambiguous commitments”.

The Catholic leader told the young people present that since they are the generation that can overcome this challenge, they must be careful and not fall “into the trap of partial visions.”

The students present listened attentively to Francisco, who energetically emphasized the importance of the Catholic university community using its privileges to combat climate change and economic inequality in order to achieve a more just, inclusive and peaceful world, reminding them that the university it should not be used “to perpetuate the world’s current elitist and unequal system.”

The Pope did not miss the opportunity to insist on the importance of an “integral ecology” that contemplates “the suffering of the planet together with that of the poor.”

The Pope and the victims of pedophilia

On August 2, the Supreme Pontiff met in private (outside the schedule of his official visit to the country) with 13 people who were victims of sexual abuse committed by members of the Portuguese ecclesiastical institution.

The 13 survivors came on behalf of the thousands of victims of pedophilia in the country. The meeting of just over an hour was attended by representatives of Portuguese ecclesial institutions in charge of the protection of minors.

In the unofficial meeting, Pope Francis asked the victims present to tell their stories and when they finished, the religious leader asked them for forgiveness on behalf of the Church of the country: “A humble and constant purification” is what the pontiff declared before the Portuguese clergy as a necessary element to reduce abuses and ensure that the victims “are always welcomed and listened to”.

Independent investigations indicate that in the European country representatives of the Portuguese Catholic Church have sexually abused more than 4,800 minors in the last 70 years.

portugal account with an association of victims of Church abuses called Coração Silenciado. Despite the fact that one of his representatives, Antonio Grosso, did not attend the meeting, he expressed his satisfaction that the pope publicly spoke out against ecclesiastical sexual violence despite not being included in the official program.

Days before the arrival of the religious leader, the surviving participants in the meeting intervened in the city of Lisbon with various posters that denounced cases of sexual abuse in the church. The posters placed were removed by the City Council, which caused discontent among the activists and members of the group; who denounced an attempt at “wild censorship”.

With EFE and AP