Pope Francis has urged Europe to once again play the the role of a peacemaker and a bridge-builder in order to inspire the next generation of Catholics to cooperate in order to address conflicts, climate change, and other global issues.
The Pope said this has he arrived in Portuagl to celebrate the World Youth Day.
Francis was in Lisbon for five days, combining a state visit and pilgrimage to the Catholic site of Fatima with the noisy trappings of World Youth Day, a Catholic gathering aimed at rallying young Catholics in their faith.
Over one million young people from all over the world were scheduled to attend the event, which will conclude with a papal Mass on Sunday.
While on his way to Lisbon, Francis vowed to continue urging young people to “make a mess” – a reference to his now-famous exhortation at his first World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in 2013.
It was a call for young people to shake things up in their parishes, and it has come to represent Francis’ own revolutionary reforms, which have rocked up the church as a whole.
The Pope’s first stop was at the Belem National Palace, the official presidential palace in Belem, west of Lisbon, from whence Portugal’s 15th and 16th century maritime explorers set sail.
In his remarks to Portuguese government officials and the diplomatic corps at a nearby conference center, he appealed to Portugal’s seafaring past, its place in Europe, and its openness to outsiders.
Citing Russia’s war in Ukraine, global warming and Europe’s demographic decline, he urged young people in particular to take up the mantle to build a future together.
