POPE FRANCIS

ANGELUS

Saint Peter's Square
Palm Sunday, 25 March 2018

You’ve seen it: today it’s unimaginable that a young person not take a “selfie” ... and they’ve just taken one. They were great!

Before concluding this Celebration, I wish to greet all of you, people of Rome and pilgrims, who have taken part, especially the young people who have come from diverse parts of the world, and those too — some 15 thousand — who participated by linking up virtually: I greet everyone! Thinking gratefully of my recent journey to Peru, I affectionately greet the Peruvian community present in Italy.

Today’s World Youth Day, which is being celebrated at the diocesan level, is an important step on the journey towards the Synod of Bishops on Young People, the Faith and Discernment in October, as is the preparatory phase of the International Day which will be held in Panama in January 2019. We are accompanied on this journey by the example and intercession of Mary, the maiden from Nazareth whom God chose as Mother of his Son. She journeys with us and guides the new generations on their pilgrimage of faith and fraternity.

May Mary help us to experience Holy Week in a good way. May we learn from her: inner silence, the heart’s gaze and the loving faith to follow Jesus on the Way of the Cross that leads to the joyous light of the Resurrection.

And before reciting the Angelus, I would very much like to thank Cardinal Baldisseri, Msgr Fabene and the entire Secretariat of the Synod and all the collaborators who helped so much this week. Many thanks!