WYD 2 - abbey

5. Pope Francis: No to liberalization of drugs
Visiting with a group of recovering addicts in a Brazilian hospital July 24, evening, Pope Francis criticized the regional push to legalize drugs, saying society must instead tackle root causes of substance abuse such as the lack of education and justice. Pope Francis greeted doctors, nuns, nurses and patients, some waiting in wheelchairs in a driving rain.   

“The scourge of drug-trafficking, that favors violence and sows the seeds of suffering and death, requires of society as a whole an act of courage,” the pope said, speaking in Portuguese. “A reduction in the spread and influence of drug addiction will not be achieved by a liberalization of drug use, as is currently being proposed in various parts of Latin America.”
Instead, he said, “it is necessary to confront the problems underlying the use of these drugs, by promoting greater justice, educating young people in the values that build up life in society, accompanying those in difficulty and giving them hope for the future.”

Vatican officials said the pope met with 10 recovering addicts from the so-called City of God favela, or slum, made famous in the 2002 movie of the same name, about boys growing up in the violent neighborhood. The favelas are often known as hotbeds for drug trafficking and use. Addicts, including children, live in areas called cracolandias, or “crack lands,” large settlements where people essentially live in the streets. Such areas hurt for adequate healthcare, a key complaint of protesters who began to march through Brazil’s streets last month.
Pope Francis chose to visit a hospital named, like him, after St. Francis of Assisi. His appearance ostensibly was to inaugurate a new wing dedicated to the treatment of drug and alcohol addicts, although nearly 2,000 such patients have already been cared for there during the last decade. He had a practical message, as well as a faith-based one. He said the church as well as doctors were available to help the needy.
“You have to want to stand up; this is the indispensable condition!” he said, his voice rising and the crowd applauding. “You will find an outstretched hand ready to help you. … Yours is a long and difficult journey.”
He told the addicts not to despair. “To all of you, I repeat: Do not let yourselves be robbed of hope!” he said, and then repeated it, to more applause. “And not only that, but I say to us all: Let us not rob others of hope, let us become bearers of hope!

6. Former Delhi archbishop gives catechesis classes at WYD
The archbishop emeritus Vincent Concessao of Delhi told participants during the World Youth Day that an encounter with Jesus will change their lives. He was taking the pilgrims’ first catechesis session of the event. “When the Lord comes into your life something new happens, we believe we see people from a different perspective,” said the archbishop. “You will see people as Jesus saw and he will give us confidence, trust and courage to do things,” he told pilgrims gathered at the school of Our Lady of Mercy in Rio de Janeiro’s Botafogo neighborhood.
Pilgrims are divided up into language groups on the mornings of July 24-26 for catechesis, one of the major teaching elements of World Youth Day. Over 250 bishops from around the world are leading the catechesis sessions, which take place at different churches and schools across Rio de Janeiro. The sessions are a chance for pilgrims to pray and listen to talks by the bishops related to the World Youth Day theme, “Go and make disciples among all the nations” (Mt 28:19).
Each catechesis session is including a question-and-answer period with the youth, Mass and confessions. The archbishop told the pilgrims some personal stories and spoke about saints who they could look to as role models. “I wanted to become a priest after I had finished high school, but a week before I joined the seminary, my father had a third attack of paralysis,” he said.
“I was 16 at the time and despite my father’s suffering, I still wanted to join the seminary, and some people were surprised,” Archbishop Concessao recalled. He also remembered a time when he met a poor man who attended his parish. “He told me, ‘sometimes I eat once a day, sometimes twice, but what I have I can share it with you,’” he said. “I felt that God was talking to me through him; for me it was like Jesus himself standing before me and talking to me,” he remarked.
The archbishop said that many times the Lord enters into our life through things that happen to us or people we meet. “On the other side of the road there was a man who saw a beggar that was mentally challenged,” he said as he began another story. “After two years the man opened an institution of about 250 people,” he added.
Archbishop Concessao told the youth that it is “very important” that their perspective be “a faith perspective.” “How do you look at people?” he challenged them. “He is your brother and sister because God made all people in his image and likeness and for him there are no outsiders or strangers.”
“There are many others who are misguided, but you are here,” he said. “It is the presence of the Lord in our faith that is important.” He then told the stories of saints who encountered the Lord and had their life completely changed, such as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.
“Every person is the temple of God and when we become aware of this we will do everything to be disciples of Jesus,” the archbishop insisted. “This is my prayer for you.”(Source: UCAN NEWS)

7. Pope makes rally cry for world's poor in speech to Brazilian slum



Pope Francis underlined his mission to lead a “church for the poor” July 25, preaching against “selfishness and individualism” in an uplifting address to a rain-soaked Brazilian slum. In a rally cry on behalf of the world’s have-nots, history’s first Latin American pope railed against inequality and corruption and called for a “culture of solidarity.”
He was cheered by residents of the Varginha favela who hung out of windows and stood on rooftops just to get a glimpse he gave his address from a vast, muddy soccer field. “You are not alone,” he assured the crowd, prompting a roar of approval. “The church is with you, the Pope is with you.” His visit to the favela – one of the most notorious of Rio’s impoverished crime-ridden shanty towns – was the latest sign of his determination that the Roman Catholic Church should speak on behalf of the world’s poorest people.
It also provided another headache for security officials on his visit to Brazil, which has already seen throngs of well-wishers mob his car. Officials wearing ponchos lined up in the rain to protect the papal convoy as it passed through the area.
Varginha is known locally as the "Gaza Strip" for its spiraling violence between rival drug gangs. The area was recently "pacified" by police – a policy of flooding the area with heavily armed officers, both uniformed and plainclothes, to form a visible presence to disrupt and disperse criminal activity. As the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis regularly visited the poorest, most dangerous areas of that city, and he specifically asked that Varginha be added to his schedule. An estimated 1.2 million people, or 22 percent of Rio’s population, live in favelas.

“Everything that is shared is multiplied,” the pope said. “Only when we are able to share do we become truly rich. The measure of the greatness of a society is found in the way it treats those most in need, those who have nothing apart from their poverty.” He said the people of Brazil “can offer the world a valuable lesson in solidarity,” adding: “I would like to make an appeal to those in possession of greater resources, to public authorities and to all people of good will who are working for social justice: Never tire of working for a more just world.

“Everybody, according to his or her particular opportunities and responsibilities, should be able to make a personal contribution to putting an end to so many social injustices. The culture of selfishness and individualism that often prevails in our society is not what builds up and leads to a more habitable world: it is the culture of solidarity that does so, seeing others not as rivals or statistics, but brothers and sisters.”

Brazil, home to the world's biggest population of Catholics with over 120 million faithful, is an apt locale for the pope to remind the world of inequality. A recent decade of economic growth in the country raised incomes for many, but tens of millions of Brazilians still live in poverty or with little more than the basics to get by.

Addressing the mostly young crowd, he said: “Dear young friends, you have a particular sensitivity towards injustice, but you are often disappointed by facts that speak of corruption on the part of people who put their own interests before the common good. “To you and to all, I repeat: Never yield to discouragement, do not lose trust, do not allow your hope to be extinguished. Situations can change, people can change. Be the first to seek to bring good, do not grow accustomed to evil, but defeat it. “
In his customarily humble style, the Pope added: “I would have liked to knock on every door, to say "good morning", to ask for a glass of cold water, to take a cafezinho, to speak as one would to family friends…but Brazil is so vast! How wonderful it is to be welcomed with such love, generosity, and joy.”
Earlier Thursday, Pope Francis was presented with the keys to Rio de Janeiro by a 15-year-old disabled athlete, Guilherme de Lima. He told the pontiff that he was hoping to compete in the 2016 Paralympic Games, according to local newspaper O Povo. In a short ceremony at the city’s municipal palace, he placed his hand on former Brazilian basketball player Oscar Schmidt, who suffers from brain cancer, and blessed the flags of the Olympic and Paralympic games.


8. Pope Francis at Prayer service with WYD pilgrims: ‘Put on Christ’

Pope Francis greeted young pilgrims taking part in World Youth Day celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday, July 25, ardently pleading with them to ‘put on Christ’. The sprawling sands of Rio’s famous Copacabana beach was the scene of the gathering, which was the first official encounter of pilgrims with the Holy Father during the week of events leading to the 28th World Youth Day on Sunday, July 28th.The Copacabana appointment opened with an extraordinary display by 150 young people who offered an artistic interpretation of daily life in the “Marvelous City”. The festivities centered on a prayer service that included a reading from the Gospel according to St. Luke, which recounts the episode of the Transfiguration (9:28-36). Prayers of the faithful were offered, as well as testimonies from five young people representing every inhabited continent.
In brief words of greeting to the young people, Pope Francis expressed his joy at being able to celebrate with them, and made his own the hopeful words of encouragement spoken by Bl. John Paul II at the 1987 World Youth Day in his native Buenos Aires, “I have great hope in you! I hope above all that you will renew your fidelity to Jesus Christ and to his redeeming Cross.”
Following the Gospel reading, the Holy Father delivered a homily in which he focused on the twin themes of faith in and faithfulness to Christ, in spiritual commitment and the discipleship of everyday life. As he has since the very beginning of his pontificate, Francis spoke of the spirit of adventure the imbues a life given over to Christ, and renewed his call never to tire of asking God’s forgiveness when there is need of it in one’s life.

Our correspondent, Sean Patrick Lovett said:
It would have been easy (and, I admit, it was tempting) to draw comparisons between the sea of young people and the ocean of water beside which they were gathered, to compare the roar of the waves with the waving, roaring crowd – and to make the inevitable links with biblical symbols involving water, seas…and fishermen.
It would have been enlightening (if you like that sort of thing) to concentrate on the numbers, which were certainly impressive: 175 countries, 1,000 Bishops, 300 performers and, most important of all, over a million people…not all of them young.

It would have been entertaining (but unnecessary) to search for superlatives with which to describe Pope Francis’ first encounter with young people from every corner of the globe during the so-called welcoming celebration that effectively marks the first of main World Youth Day events…and his own first WYD.
It would have been excessive (and repetitive) to complain about the rain, yet again… and to describe how the weather blew out the communications links for several interminable minutes.It would have been instructive (and important) to comment on each of the improvised additions Pope Francis made to his prepared discourse: “Young people are stronger than the rain”, he said…”Benedict is watching you, he accompanies us with his prayers”, he confided…”Faith revolutionizes our lives”, he stressed…
Doubtless, all this would have guaranteed a much more interesting correspondent’s report – but it wouldn’t have communicated any of the beauty and the poetry of the occasion, the sounds and the colours, the songs and the choreographies, the expressions of Pope Francis as he drove through the throng exchanging gestures, emotions, and even his zucchetto. Unfortunately, there are limitations to being a correspondent and to writing reports. I hope you understand.

9. Pope Francis to Argentinian youth: I want the Church to be in the streets

Pope Francis on Thursday July 25, also met with young people from Argentina gathered in Rio’s Cathedral to greet him. The unscheduled late morning event saw the Pope speaking off the cuff in his native Spanish after the welcoming words of the President of the Argentinian Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop José Maria Arancedo.

After words of thanks to the Argentinian youth for their presence, both inside the Cathedral and outside where he noted some 30,000 young people were standing in the rain, the Pope revealed that following a special personal request, the organizer of the Papal trip had managed to set up this event.

To a cheering congregation, many of whom were dressed in the blue and white colours of Argentina, Pope Francis said: “I would like to tell you what my expectations are regarding this World Youth Day” said Pope Francis “I would like us to make noise, I would like those inside the Dioceses to go out into the open; I want the Church to be in the streets; I want us to defend ourselves against all that is worldliness, comfort, being closed and turned within – Parishes, colleges and institutions must get out otherwise they risk becoming NGOs, and the Church is not a Non-Governmental Organization”.
And Pope Francis spoke with concern of this moment of history in which material wealth is worshiped and in which a philosophy which excludes the young and the old risks perpetrating what he called a kind of hidden euthanasia. The young – he said - who do not have the experience and the dignity of work, and the aged who are not allowed to speak are being marginalized.
And Pope Francis invited young people to go out and to fight for these values: he urged the aged to speak out, to pass on history and memory, and said that young people must not be against the elderly: “they must listen to them”. Young people and old people in this moment of history – the Pope continued - are condemned to the same destiny: exclusion. “Don’t let yourselves be excluded!”
And Pope Francis invited the youth to embrace the way of the Cross, the incarnation of Jesus. He urged them to not water down their faith which is something solid, and encouraged them to read the Beatitudes: Matthew 25. And almost apologizing for having to speak to them from a distance, the Pope said he felt “as if in a cage”, but he acknowledged security reasons and asked for prayers.