Pope urges young Catholics to ‘make a mess’ at World Youth Day

In Portugal for World Youth Day, one of Catholicism's largest gatherings, Pope Francis has said he'll continue urging young people to “make a mess” – a reference to the exhortation made during his first youth day event in Rio in 2013, when the Pontiff called on young people to shake things up in their parishes.

Young people cheer as Pope Francis arrives at the welcoming ceremony of the 2023 World Youth Day in Portugal on 3 August. © AP/Armando Franca

The famous call has also come to symbolise Pope Francis’s own revolutionary reforms that have shaken up the Catholic church at large.

Now marking his fourth World Youth Day (WYD), with more than a million people assembled in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, the Pope has been telling young people from 150 countries to build a future together and work to protect the environment, a cornerstone of his pontificate.

“Mary arose and went with haste” is the Bible quote chosen by the Pope as the motto of the this year's WYD – the first to be held after the Covid pandemic.

“It is a word that also speaks to us of getting up from our slumber, waking up to the life all around us,” the Pope wrote.

In Lisbon, he told students to take risks and reject the temptation to perpetuate the “present global system of elitism and inequality”.

Don't be managers of fears, but entrepreneurs of dreams! @Pontifex #WYD #Lisboa2023 #Lisbon2023 @wyd_en @VaticanNews #WelcomeCeremony pic.twitter.com/HVP86wciV5

— Alessandro Gisotti (@AGisotti) August 3, 2023

Sexual abuse

After landing in Lisbon on Wednesday morning, the Pope spent an hour meeting with 13 victims of clergy sexual abuse in Portugal. The survivors were accompanied by several church organisations in charge of the protection of minors.

In February, a panel of independent experts hired by Portugal’s bishops reported that priests and other church personnel have abuse at least 4,815 boys and girls from 1950 to 2022.

Prior to the report, Portuguese church officials had insisted there were only a handful cases of sexually abused children.

After the document's release, the bishops initially refused to remove named abusers from ministry and said they would only compensate victims if courts ordered them to.

• Pope calls for peace in Europe at opening of World Youth Day celebrations

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Following the meeting between the Pope and the survivors, the Portuguese Bishop’s Conference said the church was committed to “putting the victims first”, and “working together” with them on reparations as well as their recovery.

Bishop Jose Ornelas, the head of the Portuguese Bishops' Conference, promised in a speech to Pope Francis to devote “our special attention to the protection of the welfare of children and the undertaking to protect them from all kinds of abuse”.

Protection of the environment

Meeting with university students on Thurday, Pope Francis urged them to use the privilege of their education to care for the environment, the poor and marginalised – and “to redefine what we mean by progress and development”.

“We must recognise the dramatic urgency of caring for the common home,” he told them.

“Yours can be the generation that takes up this great challenge; you have the most advanced scientific tools.”

The crowd cheered and applauded when Pope Francis took to the stage.

🎥VIDEO | Pope Francis in his first words to the young people of the world at #WYD #Lisbon2023: You are not here by chance. God calls you by your name, and for Jesus, each one is important. pic.twitter.com/mu64cPHVML

— EWTN Vatican (@EWTNVatican) August 3, 2023

“We need an integral ecology, attentive to the sufferings both of the planet and the poor," he added.

"We need to align the tragedy of desertification with that of refugees, the issue of increased migration with that of a declining birth rate.”

Peace and Faith

Since its first edition in Rome in 1986, by Saint John Paul II, WYD has been bringing together millions of young people to celebrate their faith and sense of belonging to the church.

On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of thousands of people attended the first public meeting with Pope Francis at the welcome ceremony on Lisbon’s Colina do Encontro.

Chrystelle – 27 years – travelled from Niger and told RFI’s Véronique Gaymard that she'd be waving the flag of her country.

This is not the World Cup, nor the Olympics, this is World Youth Day! Every country (except one) has shown up in Lisbon, where the heart of the Church is beating hard these days.
Look for your flag! #WYD #Lisbon2023 pic.twitter.com/2dh54FyQiz

— EWTN News (@EWTNews) August 3, 2023

“It will be like a message of peace and the 3^rd of August is also Niger’s independence day," she said.

"You know, the coup happened on the same day we left. It’s when we reached Lisbon that we heard what happened.

“We are worried, we do not know how we will go back home. We pray that peace is restored and that the people in power come to an agreement and take care of its people”.

The Pope said that the world was sailing through storms on the ocean of history.

“I dream of a Europe, the heart of the West, which employs its immense talents to settling conflicts and lighting lamps of hope,” he said.

Pope Francis will deliver a Mass on Sunday 6 August in Lisbon on the last day of his five-day visit to Portugal

World Youth Day runs until Sunday, 6 August.