(AP) Pope tells young in Rio to treasure the elderly
By NICOLE WINFIELD and BRADLEY BROOKS
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO
Pope Francis praised the elderly during the Roman Catholic Church’s festival of youth Friday, saying grandparents are critical for passing on wisdom and religious heritage and are a “treasure to be preserved and strengthened.”
Francis has made a point of not focusing just on the next generation of Catholics during World Youth Day, but on the older generation as well. It’s part of his longstanding work caring for the elderly in Argentina, the crucial role his own grandmother played in his spiritual development and the gentle deference he shows his predecessor, Benedict XVI.
Speaking from the balcony of the residence of Rio’s archbishop, Francis noted that Friday is celebrated as Grandparent’s Day in much of the world and that young people should take the occasion to honor and thank their grandparents for the wisdom they share.
“How important grandparents are for family life, for passing on the human and religious heritage which is so essential for each and every society!” he said.
Francis spoke about the important “bridge” between young and old in his brief remarks to journalists en route to Rio, saying young Catholics have the strength to bring the church forward while older Catholics have the “wisdom of life” to share that shouldn’t be discarded.
“This relationship and this dialogue between generations is treasure to be preserved and strengthened,” he said Friday.
Francis started off the day by hearing confessions from a half-dozen young pilgrims in a Rio park and met privately with a group of juvenile detainees, a priority of his ever since his days as archbishop of Buenos Aires and an expression of his belief that the Catholic Church must reach out to the most marginalized and forgotten of society. Even now as pope, he calls a group of youths in a Buenos Aires detention center every two weeks just to keep in touch.
In the park, a white tent was set up to receive the faithful for confession, with small makeshift confessionals off to the side. Five youths, chosen through a raffle, were selected for confession, a sacrament in which Catholics confess their sins and are forgiven.
“It was just five minutes, it followed the regular ritual of confession, but then Francis stayed and talked with us,” said one of the five, Estefani Lescano, 21, a student from La Guaira, Venezuela. “It was all very personal. He told us that young people have the responsibility of keeping the church alive and spreading the word of Christ.”
The sun finally came out on Friday, ending four days of rain that soaked pilgrims and forced the relocation of the festival’s culminating Mass on Sunday. Instead, the Mass and the Saturday night vigil that precedes it will take place at Copacabana beach rather than the mud pit covering the original site in Guaratiba, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of central Rio.
The improved weather bode well for Friday’s main event, the evening Way of the Cross procession re-enacting Christ’s crucifixion, held improbably at Copacabana, ground zero for hedonism in the city.
On Thursday, Francis showed off his rebellious side, urging young Catholics to shake up the church and make a “mess” in their dioceses by going out into the streets to spread the faith. It’s a message he put into practice by visiting one of Rio’s most violent slums. He later led a giant welcome ceremony on Copacabana beach in which he rode in his open-sided popemobile along the 2.5 mile-long (4 kilometer) seashore.
Francis was elected pope on a mandate to reform the church, and in four short months he has started doing just that: He has broken long-held Vatican rules on everything from where he lays his head at night to how saints are made. He has cast off his security detail to get close to his flock, and his first international foray as pope has shown the faithful appreciate the gesture.
Thursday’s surprise came during his encounter with Argentine pilgrims, scheduled at the last minute in yet another sign of how this spontaneous pope is shaking up the Vatican’s staid and often stuffy protocol.
He told the thousands of youngsters, with an estimated 30,000 Argentines registered, to get out into the streets and spread their faith, saying a church that doesn’t go out and preach simply becomes a civic or humanitarian group.
“I want to tell you something. What is it that I expect as a consequence of World Youth Day? I want a mess. We knew that in Rio there would be great disorder, but I want trouble in the dioceses!” he said, speaking off the cuff in his native Spanish. “I want to see the church get closer to the people. I want to get rid of clericalism, the mundane, this closing ourselves off within ourselves, in our parishes, schools or structures. Because these need to get out!”
Apparently realizing the radicalness of his message, he apologized in advance to the bishops at home.
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Nicole Winfield on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Bradley Brooks on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bradleybrooks