With his appeal for more cohesion between peoples, Pope Francis has sparked enthusiasm among young believers at the World Youth Day in Panama.
He called people on Thursday evening (local time) to build bridges instead of walls – and condemned „those builders of walls that, fearful, try to divide people“.
According to organizers, around 250,000 young people attended the party on the coastal strip of Panama City, many of them as simple visitors. Officially registered as pilgrims, the World Youth Day organizers have only about 86 000 people, this number was recently revised down several times. From Germany there are 2300 pilgrims on the spot.
„With your gestures and your behavior, with your looks, with the wishes and above all with the sensitivity that you have, you disprove and defuse all those speeches that are intent on causing division and which forcefully exclude and expel those „They are not like us,“ said the pontiff.
The Argentine repeatedly argues against foreclosure and has also been involved in the US President Donald Trump’s forced debate on the construction of a wall on the border with Mexico. During his trip to Mexico in 2016, Francis had said, „A person who thinks of building walls instead of bridges is not Christian.“
On Friday, the pontiff expects a quieter program: Francis wants to meet with juvenile delinquents at 16.30 CET and to remove the confession from prisoners. Later, Francis wants to go with young believers on a crossroads.
World Youth Days are held every two to three years. In changing places, Catholic young people from all over the world come together to celebrate their faith. The current World Youth Day in Panama City lasts until Sunday and is the third in Latin America after the events in Buenos Aires (1987) and Rio de Janeiro (2013).
