Franco Pisano

The Pastoral Guidelines for the Celebration of World Youth Day in Particular Churches have been made public. “Everyone must feel ‘specially invited’,” even “all those young people who may be looking for their place in the Church and who have not yet found it.”

“Many people have been wounded, and many innocent people have died”, including children. “This is terrible and unacceptable. Their death is a sign that we want to destroy the future rather than build it.”

Francis led a Mass for Myanmar Catholics living in Rome. Their country is marked by “violence, conflict, [and] repression". The pontiff wishes “to lay upon the Lord’s altar the sufferings of his people and to join you in praying that God will convert all hearts to peace.”

For the pontiff, “even today, we note that the first reaction of many families is to cover up everything. It is always there, in other institutions, even in the Church. We must fight this old habit of covering up.”

Speaking at the General States of the birth rate, Francis says that "children are the hope that makes a people be reborn!". “Sometimes the message passes that fulfillment means making money and success, while the children seem almost a diversion, which must not hinder their personal aspirations. This mentality is gangrene for society and makes the future unsustainable”.

The meetings, inspired by social doctrine, in view of the upcoming United Nations Summit on Food Systems in 2021, intend to privilege the voices of women, indigenous communities, people living in crisis situations, small farmers and others.

The general audience returns to the San Damaso courtyard. Francis expresses his happiness at renewed contact with people: “I'll tell you one thing - he added - it's not nice to talk to nothing or a room, it's not nice!”. “Almost always, after postponing prayer, we realize that those things were not essential at all, and that we may have wasted time. This is how the Enemy deceives us.”

It is a "lay ministry" for men and women, which "will emphasize even more the missionary commitment proper to every baptized person, a commitment that must however be carried out in a fully “secular” manner, avoiding any form of clericalization".

"End the clashes" in Jerusalem and respect the multireligious character of the city. "To love like Christ means to say no to other 'loves' that the world offers us: love for money, for success, vanity, for power…. These deceptive paths take us away from the love of the Lord and lead us to become more and more selfish, narcissistic and overbearing ".

God instill "a spirit of justice that mobilises us to ensure universal access to vaccines and the temporary suspension of intellectual property rights; a spirit of communion that allows us to generate a different, more inclusive, just and sustainable economic model.”

Message of Francis for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. "The Catholic faithful are called to commit themselves, each starting from the community in which he lives, so that the Church becomes ever more inclusive". "Our societies will have a “colourful” future, enriched by diversity and by cultural exchanges".

“Those who live in big cities, where everything is artificial and functional, risk losing the ability to contemplate”, which “is not primarily a way of doing, but a way of being”. "Contemplation is a look of faith fixed on Jesus. 'I look at him and he looks at me'".