Young people: it is a day of celebration
«Holy Father, we thank you for your presence today, here among the young people of the 15 dioceses of Veneto. We welcomed her as she asked us on the occasion of World Youth Day: by making noise, singing and applauding.” Thus the boys and girls gathered in the Salute field in Venice to meet Pope Francis greeted him, after a roar of applause to the tune of Emmanuel, after she entered the pope mobile, together with the patriarch of Venice, Francesco Moraglia.
The Pope invites art to create a “network”
The Pope invites art to form a “network”, “collaborating to free the world from senseless and now emptied antinomies, but which seek to gain the upper hand in racism, xenophobia, inequality, ecological imbalance and aporophobia, this terrible neologism meaning ‘phobia of the poor. Behind these antinomies there is always the rejection of the other. There is selfishness that makes us function as solitary islands instead of collaborative archipelagos”, said the Pope speaking to the artists during his visit to the Venice Biennale. «I implore you, artist friends, imagine cities that do not yet exist on the map: cities in which no human being is considered a stranger. This is why when we say ‘foreigners everywhere, we are proposing ‘brothers everywhere”, underlined Pope Francis.
The Pope: I will leave this courtyard richer
«Dear sisters today we will all leave this courtyard richer. Maybe the one who comes out richer will be me.” It was at these words of the Pope that the first applause broke out in the courtyard of the Giudecca prison, the Pontiff’s first stop in Venice. Some of the women had tears in their eyes. The inmates then gave the Holy Father some of the products they make in the prison laboratories: natural soaps, bubble bath, and also a new white skullcap, which Francis immediately put in place of his own.
A special place in “my heart”
The Pope’s first meeting in Venice is with the Giudecca inmates: «I wanted to meet you at the beginning of my visit to Venice to tell you that you have a special place in my heart. I would therefore like us to experience this moment not so much as an official visit from the Pope, but as a meeting in which, by the grace of God, we give each other time, prayer, closeness and fraternal affection. Today we will all leave this courtyard richer, perhaps the one who will emerge richer will be me, and the good we will exchange will be precious”, said Pope Francis. «It is the Lord who wants us together in this moment, arrived through different paths, some very painful, also due to errors from which, in various ways, each person bears wounds and scars. And God wants us together because he knows that each of us, here, today, has something unique to give and receive, and that we all need it”, “each of us has our own singularity, a gift to offer and share” , said the Pope in his first speech in Venice.
The Pope: «Prison is a harsh reality, and problems such as overcrowding generate a lot of suffering»
“Prison is a harsh reality, and problems such as overcrowding, the lack of structures and resources, episodes of violence generate a lot of suffering there.” The Pope said this to the inmates of the Giudecca in Venice, inviting them “not to take away the dignity of anyone”. Prison «can also become a place of rebirth, moral and material, in which the dignity of women and men is not “put in isolation”, but promoted through mutual respect and care of talents and abilities».
Pope francesco it’s at Venice. «Let us not forget that we all have mistakes to be forgiven for and wounds to heal, I too, and that we can all become healed which brings healing, forgiven which brings forgiveness, reborn which brings rebirth. Dear friends, let us renew today, you and I, together, our faith in the future.” You said it in your speech to the inmates at prison of Giudecca. “Do not close the window, please, always look to the future, always look with hope,” added Pope Francis. «No one should take away people’s dignity», he then said.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
