The Catholic leader arrived this Wednesday, August 2, in the Portuguese capital to participate in a meeting that brings together young Catholics from around the world. In addition, he will officially visit the Portuguese authorities and will have other meetings with civil society. This trip, number 42 in his pontificate, is surrounded by anxiety about the health of the 86-year-old religious leader, who was hospitalized in March and June of this year in Rome.
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Lisbon received Pope Francis this Wednesday, August 2. The Supreme Pontiff will participate in the events of the World Youth Day. On his agenda he has scheduled 20 meetings and 11 public events, which go until August 6.
The 86-year-old Catholic leader, after arriving at the Figo Maduro airbase in Lisbon, met with the President of the Republic at the National Palace of Belém, the official residence of the Executive. After the meeting, he gave a speech to the country’s authorities at the Belém Cultural Center.
In the speech, in which a large part was dedicated to expressing criticism “with love” of the European Union, he took the opportunity to suggest policies that support young people and that have as their central axis: “The environment, the future and the fraternity”.
“The global problem remains extremely serious: the oceans are heating up and their depths bring to the surface the ugliness with which we have contaminated our common home. We are turning the great reserves of life into plastic dumps,” lamented Francisco.
In what is already his rhetorical style, the pontiff stressed that “we must carefully care” for the environment “with the younger generations in mind.” “How can we say that we believe in young people if we don’t give them a healthy space to build the future?” Francisco added.
In his first public speech, within the framework of World Youth Day, he took the opportunity to highlight that “the future is the young”, but he questioned the “factors that discourage them” including unemployment, the “frantic pace” of the life, the rising cost of living, the problems in finding housing and, “what is most worrying”, in his words: “Raising a family and bringing children into the world”.
Francis also took advantage of this platform to draw Europe’s attention and “do not offer creative paths”, referring to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. A criticism in which he also insisted on his trip to Hungary last April.
“I dream of a Europe, the heart of the West, that uses its ingenuity to put out sources of war and light lights of hope,” said Francisco.
“Where are they going if, faced with the pain of living, they offer superficial and wrong remedies, such as easy access to death, a convenience solution that seems sweet, but is actually more bitter than the waters of the sea?” With these words, the Catholic leader criticized the recently approved decriminalization of euthanasia in Portugal.
On this day, there were also demonstrations by dozens of police officers who denounced the job insecurity in their sector and asked them to “pray for them”, since, they say, “practically what remains is faith”.
During the first day, Francisco will meet with political authorities, members of civil society and the diplomatic corps at the Belém Cultural Center, where he delivered his first speech. In the afternoon, local Portuguese time, the pontiff is expected to meet at the Apostolic Nunciature with the president of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Ernesto dos Santos Silva, and with Prime Minister António Costa.
Concerns for Francisco’s health
The trip to Portugal, number 42 in his pontificate, comes weeks after the leader of the Catholic Church was hospitalized in Rome after surgery to prevent intestinal obstruction. Last March, he too was admitted to a hospital in the Italian capital after a respiratory infection.
The highest pontiff arrived in Lisbon in a wheelchair, as has been the custom since May 5, 2022, when he appeared for the first time in an audience using it.
In December 2022, Francisco surprised after reveal in an interview with the Spanish media ABC, that at the beginning of his pontificate in 2013, the Pope delivered a letter of resignation “in case of impediment for medical reasons.” This decision had already been taken by Popes Paul VI and Pius XII
With EFE and AFP
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