I send warm greetings to all of you, young evangelizers who are participating in “Hechos 29”, an important missionary initiative in the digital environment.

It is my hope that this meeting will help you feel that you are a community, part of the missionary life of the Church which has never been afraid to encounter new horizons and frontiers, and proclaim the mercy and tender love of God with creativity and courage.

As I said during my recent Apostolic Journey to Canada: “We must find new ways to proclaim the heart of the Gospel to those who have not yet encountered Christ. This calls for a pastoral creativity capable of reaching people where they are living – not waiting for them to come – but where they are living, finding opportunities for listening, dialogue and encounter”.

Do not be afraid, do not be afraid of making mistakes. Indeed, I never tire of saying that I prefer a wounded Church, which can go out to the existential peripheries of the world, to a Church that is sick because it remains enclosed in its narrow certainties. The Lord knocks on our door in order to enter our hearts, but so often he knocks on the door from the inside so that we will let him out.

May the mission you carry out in digital spaces be full of humanity.  Go forth and be “Good Samaritans” in these environments, so that today’s culture may know God by sensing him in you. Go forth and bear the hope of Jesus, especially to those who are farthest away, giving them reasons for the hope that is in them.

May your words be accompanied by charity, and may “virtuality” increase your “presence”, so that the Internet can give rise to a communion that makes Jesus present in your own culture.

Dear missionaries, to you I impart my blessing and I ask you, please, to remember to pray for me. Thank you.