Pope Francis said this Sunday in the city of Asti, Italy, that young people are needed to change the world and who are not conformists and slaves of mobile phones.
Francisco spoke after the Mass and the Angelus Prayer he celebrated in the town of Asti, in Piedmont, northwestern Italy, the hometown of his father and grandparents.
In his message, the Pope recalled World Youth Day (WYD), celebrated today in local churches with the theme “Mary arose and went hastily away”, the same as WYD Lisbon, scheduled for August 2023.
The pope invited young people not to stop thinking about themselves, wasting their lives chasing comfort and the latest fashion, but to “overcome their own fears to bring help to those in need”.🇧🇷
“And today there is a need for young people who are true transgressors, non-conformists, who are not slaves to mobile phones, but who change the world like Mary, taking Jesus to others, caring for others, building fraternal communities with others, realize dreams of peace,” he added. the pope.
At the end of this celebration, Francis thanked “the enthusiastic welcome” he received in the land of his ancestors and concluded with a few sentences in the Piedmontese dialect, which he says he knows because that’s how his grandparents spoke to him.
“My father left these countries to emigrate to Argentina. And in these countries, valuable for their good agricultural products and especially for the authentic work of the people, I rediscovered the taste of the roots,” he recalled during mass in the cathedral from Asti.
Francisco traveled to the small town of Portacomaro on Saturday to visit his cousins and have lunch with cousin Carla Ravenzana, who has just turned 90. Giorgio, as she calls him, is the son of Mario Bergoglio, the cousin of his mother, Inês.
Before lunch, the pope wanted to stop at the church of Portacomaro, which his family used to visit, and at the end of the meal, he visited the nursing home located directly opposite his cousin’s house and enjoyed a conversation with some of the residents.
The pope also visited Tigliole, another small town in the Asti area, where one of his close cousins, Delia Gai, lives.
Source: DN
