Around 1.5 million people went to World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, which was like a festival with prayers and holy rock. Pope Francis wanted to show that the Church has “open doors” for “everyone, everyone, everyone.”
The problem of sexual abuse of children by adults in the Church in Portugal was not talked about during the party. Francis talked about the problem on Wednesday, the day he arrived in Lisbon. He did so in a private meeting with 13 victims that wasn’t on the public schedule. He asked them for forgiveness.
On Wednesday, the Pope talked to bishops, priests, and other members of the Roman Catholic Church at the Jerónimos Monastery about child abuse, but he never used the word “sexual.”
Victims of abuse should always be accepted and listened to, and Francis said that he understood there is anger and sadness with the organization because of the scandals. He said this on the same day that signs in Lisbon reminded people of the 4,800 cases of abuse in Portugal.
Throughout these four days, Pope Francis told young people and the faithful many times that the Church must have its “doors open” (as he said in Fatima) to everyone. He rarely read from written texts.
“To all, all, all,” he said at the welcome event on Thursday and again at the vigil of the day on Saturday.
Francis made sure that the word of this World Day was that everyone is welcome: “Everyone can enter. It is where the mother lives. A mother whose heart is open to everyone, everyone, everyone.”
Today, at the Mass of Sending Forth, which was the last event of WYD, Pope Francis made another request of young people. He told them over and over that they are both the present and the future, which he said several times. “Do not be afraid,” he told her in Spanish.
Francis knew that young people “have big dreams” but that they “often get scared and think they can’t do it.” “You all want to change the world, and you want to change it for justice and peace,” he said.
Even though he called for equality, like when he said in an interview that transgender people are also “children of God,” there were some problems during the day. For example, LGBTQIA+ Roman Catholics interrupted a mass.
When the pope went to the Serafina neighborhood of Lisbon, he gave another important speech. There, Francis told the leaders of the Church’s charities to ask themselves if they are disgusted by poverty and challenged them to get their hands dirty.
“Am I disgusted by poverty, or by the poverty of others?” Francis asked this question during a meeting with people from social and charitable help centers at the Parish Social Centre of St. Vincent de Paul. He then said, “Concrete love is what makes your hands dirty.”
Pilgrims went to the feast of the day in Parque Eduardo VII and Parque Tejo, where it was over 30°C and had been close to 40°C for the last two days. And people were upset early on because they had to wait in line to fill their water bottles.
Thousands of people “flooded” the streets to see and wave to the Pope during the five days he was in Lisbon.
