Pope Francis said this Sunday in the city of Asti, Italy, that young people are needed to change the world and that they are not conformists and slaves to cell phones.
Francis was speaking after Mass and the Angelus prayer that he celebrated in the city of Asti, in Piedmont (northwestern Italy), the birthplace of his father and grandparents.
In his message, the Pope recalled the World Youth Day (WYD) that is celebrated today in local churches with the motto “Mary got up and left in haste”, like WYD in Lisbon, scheduled for August 2023. .
The Pope invited young people not to stop thinking about themselves, wasting their lives in search of comforts and the latest fashions, but to “get out of their own fears to reach out to those in need.”
“And today young people are needed who are truly transgressors, non-conformists, who are not slaves to cell phones, but who change the world like Mary, bringing Jesus to others, caring for others, building fraternal communities with others, realizing dreams of peace,” added the pontiff.
At the end of this celebration, Francisco thanked “the enthusiastic welcome” he received in the land of his ancestors and concluded with some phrases in the Piedmontese dialect, which he says he knows, because that is how his grandparents spoke to him.
“My father left these lands to emigrate to Argentina. And in these lands, valuable for their good agricultural products and above all for the authentic work of the people, I come to rediscover the flavor of the roots ”, he recalled during the mass in the cathedral of Asti.
Francisco traveled to the small town of Portacomaro on Saturday to visit his cousins and have lunch at the home of cousin Carla Ravenzana, who just turned 90. Giorgio, as she calls him, is the son of Mario Bergoglio, first cousin of her mother, Inês.
Before lunch, the pontiff wanted to make a stop at the Portacomaro church, which his family attended and, at the end of the meal, he visited the nursing home that is just opposite his cousin’s house and entertained himself by talking with some of the neighbors. .
The Pope also visited Tigliole, another small town in the Asti area, where one of his close cousins, Delia Gai, lives.
Source: Observadora
