Pope Francis challenged young people Thursday (August 3) to make the world a more just and inclusive place as he focused the second day of his trip to Portugal for World Youth Day to inspire students to combat global warming and economic inequalities.
He made the remarks as he visited the Catholic University of Portugal in Lisbon. According to the Catholic News Agency, the pope first heard the testimonies of four students who shared their academic experiences and hopes for the future. In his remarks, Pope Francis urged students to "seek and risk," reminding them that an education like theirs is both a gift and a responsibility.
"A university would have little use if it were simply to train the next generation to perpetuate the present global system of elitism and inequality, in which higher education is the privilege of a happy few," he said. "Unless knowledge is embraced as a responsibility, it bears little fruit."
Initially launched by Pope John Paul II in the 1980s, World Youth Day is the Catholic Church's jamboree for young adults and professionals to encourage them in their faith. In the pontificate of the Argentine Jesuit pope, his key platforms of social justice and environmental priorities take center stage, as per the Associated Press.
Visiting Pilgrims and Refugees
The pontiff has also used the time in Lisbon to meet with individual groups of pilgrims to offer words of encouragement, including a group of Ukrainians who left behind the war in their homeland. He also met with Turkish pilgrims who survived February's earthquake and relatives of a French catechist who had a fatal fall while on her Youth Day pilgrimage.'
After the visit with college students, he had a more intimate, informal conversation with young people in the former fishing village of Cascais. He also met a group of students at the local branch of his Scolas Ocurrentes foundation in Cascais, remarking the common room of the center being painted like the Sistine Chapel back in the Vatican.
Addressing Abuse
As soon as he landed in Lisbon Wednesday (August 2), Pope Francis immediately tackled Portugal's clergy sex abuse crisis, which has intensified after a panel of experts hired by Portugal's bishops reported in February that priests and other church personnel may have abused at least 4,815 boys and girls since 1950.
The pope also scheduled a meeting with some clerical sex abuse victims after Tuesday's (August 2) Vespers service at the Jerónimos Monastery.
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WYD First Mass a Sacrilege Right Off the Bat, Traditional Catholic Commentator Says
Meanwhile, OnePeterFive contributing editor and traditionalist Catholic Kennedy Hall observed what he called a "sacrilegious disaster" during the opening Mass for World Youth Day in Lisbon.
While he commended the enthusiasm of young people to enrich their Catholic faith by flying to Lisbon for the event, the actual liturgy was anything but positive.
Hall criticized the cubist aesthetics of the dais constructed for the event, as well as the "bathtub" altar used for the Mass, the vestments used by the clergy, the apparent banality of the music used in the service, as well as the inaction of the priests who were present in the Mass.
"Sometimes when these sorts of nuChurch constructions are on display, it makes you wonder if they really are trying to destroy Catholic devotion," he said. "Imagine the planning that preceded the construction of this thing."
What Hall particularly was incensed with is the way Holy Communion was distributed. According to Catholic doctrine, the bread and wine offered in a Catholic Mass are literally transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. He criticized the hundreds of priests present in the service for not being the ones distributing holy communion, delegating the task to laypeople instead.
"Instead of using their consecrated hands to provide Holy Communion to the faithful, the priests instead grabbed Hosts from the ciborium and dipped them in the Precious Blood, using their hands as patens to catch any drips," he remarked. "I am not sure why they received this way, but I imagine it is because in Novus Ordo-land [a tirade against the New Order of Mass Catholics currently use since 1969], sitting on the grass and receiving under both kinds counts as a concelebration."
To conclude, Hall called the Lisbon World Youth Day another typical one, with "[f]lags waving, immodesty, [and] sacrilege."
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