“Do not be afraid”, with this exhortation, repeated several times in Spanish, Pope Francis concluded the homily of the final mass of the 37th World Youth Day. A speech in which he tried to outline the legacy of this WYD, to hand it on to the young people who are about to return home. The Pontiff returned to Parque Tejo early in the morning, to meet again the young people who had gathered for the evening vigil to him. One and a half million people, a number that was confirmed this morning by the local authorities also for the Sunday liturgy.
After making a few rounds in the popemobile among the young people, he headed towards the stage, where the Eucharistic celebration presided over by the Pope and concelebrated by 30 cardinals, 700 bishops and 10,000 priests has just begun. In his homily, Pope Bergoglio commented on the Gospel passage of the Transfiguration, a solemnity that occurs today in the liturgical calendar. “It is beautiful – he said in Peter’s words – how much we have experienced with Jesus, what we have lived together and how we have prayed with so much joy in our hearts”. But we need to ask ourselves, he added, “what do we take with us returning to the valley of daily life”. And the answer is condensed into three verbs: to shine, to listen and precisely not to fear”.
And right at the beginning, Cardinal Manuel Clemente, patriarch of Lisbon, in saying “obrigado”, thank you, to the Pope, defined him as “the youngest of all the young people present”. “You – he added – wanted the Day to be, especially for young people, an opportunity to meet and encourage solidarity and the construction of a world capable of responding better to everyone’s just aspirations, after a pandemic that has confined and anything else that may have distanced them from each other and from the best of themselves. You have always been with us, encouraging us to carry forward the realization of the Day, overcoming postponements and obstacles that have not been lacking. This Day was especially yours , Holy Father, and of the young people he has summoned here. And so it will be remembered in the future, as a decisive moment for a generation that will build a more beautiful and more fraternal world“.
At the end of the mass, after the greeting address of the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, Pope Francis will hand over the WYD crosses to some representatives of young people from the five continents and will announce the See and the year in which the next World Youth Day will take place. In the afternoon, before his departure for Rome, the Pontiff will hold his last public meeting, the one with the WYD volunteers at the “Passeio maritimo” in Alges. The arrival in Rome is scheduled for this evening at 10.15 pm.